BMX freestyler Kim Lea Müller surprisingly wins the first German medal at the European Championships. Team colleague Lara Lessmann is very disappointed. Likewise with Charlotte Worthington and Nikita Ducarraz. The favorites take great risks in their runs and fall.
Kim Lea Müller couldn’t get the radiance off her face. To the applause of the packed Olympic mountain, the BMX freestyler from Oldenburg stood on the podium and was overjoyed to receive her silver medal. “I didn’t expect it,” said Müller, “if the others had made the run they had planned, it would probably have been different.”
But the 20-year-old surprisingly secured the first German precious metal at the European Championships in a wild final with an unexpectedly clear death of the favourite. Gold went to the Czech Iveta Micolycova, bronze went to Laury Perez from France.
Both the British Olympic champion Charlotte Worthington and the reigning European champion Nikita Ducarraz took great risks in their runs and fell. The German model freestyler Lara Lessmann only got the thankless fourth place. “Lara is one of the best, the pressure was enormous,” explained national coach Tobias Wicke: “You just want to deliver in front of a home crowd, it’s a big disappointment for her.”
Even the “slightly speechless” Wicke was surprised that it was Müller of all people who got the longed-for medal: “I didn’t expect it at all with Kim.” But: “Many people just don’t know what they can do, that was a big advantage today,” said the BDR coach. In 2021, Müller had already shown her skills at the European Championships in Moscow with a fifth place, but a medal was never planned in Munich either. “I only had the goal of having fun and doing my run, my goal wasn’t to finish in the top three,” admitted the sports student, but added with a laugh: “Of course it’s cool that it happened .”
