Paris. A debut and a surprise: Dennis Schröder and Anna-Maria Wagner carry the German flag at the Olympic opening ceremony.
That his great idol is a head taller or was he back then? Dennis Schröder will find compensation for the 30 centimeters he is less than the 2.13 meters of the giant Dirk Nowitzki when he celebrates what is probably the greatest moment of his sporting career on Friday at the start of the Summer Olympics in Paris (7:30 p.m. / ARD). He will try it out. The national basketball player will carry the German flag at the opening ceremony together with the judoka Anna-Maria Wagner. The secret was actually only supposed to be revealed this Wednesday, but now the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) has confirmed who won the elections the day before. The basketball player and the judoka, the world champion and the world champion.
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At the Stade Jean-Bouin, home to the powerful rugby players of Paris Stade Francais and where the DOSB has set up its facilities during the Olympic days in the French capital, the flag bearer should be able to express his pride on a boat on Friday to let the black, red and gold colours fly on the Seine in front of the German Olympic team. “It is a great honour for me to be able to carry the flag,” explained Dennis Schröder, 30, the day before. “I think being the first dark-skinned person to be able to do this definitely makes a statement in Germany.”
There has perhaps been no other topic recently – at least not in sport – on which the NBA team Brooklyn Nets, which has long been controversial in Germany because of its ostentatious display, has said more than its desire to be able to carry the flag. On the way from London to Lille after the test against the favorite USA, despite the score of 88:92, the DBB captain was handed a small copy of the German flag. Dennis Schröder immediately practiced how to pan correctly with his mobile phone. He had already received tips from Dirk Nowitzki, who was the standard bearer in Beijing in 2008.
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Anna-Maria Wagner was visibly moved when she was informed of the vote in a fan survey. “I didn’t expect this because the competition was very, very strong,” said the 28-year-old judoka, almost in tears. “It’s a beautiful thank you for the last few years, for all my life, which was subordinated to the sport.” The Ravensburg native, who trains in Cologne, received a lot of respect in 2021 after the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where she trained in Cologne. She won bronze in the individual and team events. She had made her mental health problems public and could no longer find motivation after the World Cup title and Olympic bronze. “Then the first question was: OK, what now? What’s next? I had lost the joy of judo.”
Fortunately, she found them again. It was only at the last minute, with the renewal of her World Cup title in Abu Dhabi in May, that Anna-Maria Wagner secured her ticket to Paris, as the world number two has a strong domestic competitor in Alina Böhm. In her second Olympics, Wagner is once again one of the contenders for gold in the under-78 kg category. “Overall, the memories of Tokyo are very good. I hope they will be repeated and that I can do better in Paris.”
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No matter the outcome of the competition, which starts on August 1st, neither Anna-Maria Wagner nor Dennis Schröder will forget the opening ceremony on the Seine in the heart of the French capital, which was watched by up to 300,000 spectators. More than 500,000 fans chose the two: the judoka scored 80.01 points and beat footballer Alexandra Popp (74.01), Olympic champion in Rio in 2016, and dressage rider Jessica von Bredow-Werndl (45.98), who won double gold in Tokyo. In the men’s category, Schröder (103.54) clearly distanced herself from Olympic champions Alexander Zverev (tennis/57.57) and Christian Reitz (shooting/38.89).
“Of course I am happy that my team is at the start and that we are trying to present Germany in the best possible light at the opening ceremony, of course with all the TeamD athletes who can celebrate with us,” said Dennis Schröder, for whose team the opening ceremony also presents logistical difficulties. The team will have to return late in the evening to Lille, 220 kilometres away. The opening game against Japan awaits on Saturday at 1.30 p.m.