Tränen lügen nicht

Enough. It's simple enough. Water everywhere you look. Just two minutes in the fresh Thuringian air was enough to be soaking wet. Alas, the backpack was not properly covered. The raindrops, which sprayed onto the earth with great pressure as if from a hose, did not stop at electronic devices. Athletes, coaches, journalists and of course thousands of spectators walked around with their hoods pulled low over their faces. They all looked like aliens from another world.

How, one inevitably asked oneself, is one supposed to do sport in the face of such capricious weather? Or to put it another way: Do you absolutely have to go to the ski slopes and cross-country ski trails when a roaring fire is more popular? The answer is simple: there is no escape, because an event such as the Biathlon World Championships is characterized by a tight schedule that simply does not allow for unforeseen circumstances. And so Lisa Vittozzi, for example, was unable to compete in the pursuit competition the next day after she was incapacitated by a cold after the sprint. The great fifth place and therefore the excellent starting position could not be used. Lisa was sad. “My heart is crying,” she said.

From the sickbed to relay gold: Lisa Vittozzi © APA/afp / CHRISTOF STACHE

It was an internal pain that couldn't be seen from the outside. This sentence expresses with deep impression how much this renunciation may have affected her. The athlete, a sensitive, vulnerable creature, allowed us an insight into her inner life. When the pursuit competition was underway, she was lying in the hotel room with a slight fever. Even the perfect care from team chef Arturo didn't help overcome the disappointment. The tears, of course, did not find their way to freedom. Vittozzi kept it to himself. Other emotions came later. Tears of joy. There was a slight sparkle in her eyes after winning the relay. For the first time, an Italian women's quartet won the world championship title in biathlon. It was hilarious.

Cry with announcement About a thousand kilometers further, in Meribel, France, the sobs of joy could be heard even more clearly towards the end of the Alpine World Ski Championships. With notice, by the way, which is quite rare given the actually spontaneous outbursts of emotion. The winner of the bronze medal in the slalom, Lena Dürr from Germering near Munich, announced the stream of tears. “I have to cry now,” she said. Her entire life as a skier fell out of her. Above all, the many disappointments of the past, the countless fourth places, the repeated unsuccessful attempts to finally secure a medal at a major event: all of this accumulated when the goal was finally achieved at the age of 31.

Lena Dürr had to fight for a long time for her medal. © APA / EXPA/JOHANN GRODER

That's not bad. It's more like the door that was always closed is now finally wide open. After all, crying is a fundamentally human trait. Unfortunately, empirical research on emotional crying is still in its early stages. Estimates of how many tears a person sheds in the course of their life vary between 70 and 100 liters up to five million, which can probably only come about if you watch the box office hit “Titanic” every day, which is probably the case could go against the stability of the soul.

Visible disappointment Crying is supposed to be healing and it is somehow obvious that sport in particular encourages the flow of tears because, more than in other areas of life, joy and suffering are so close together. The French Julia Simon, who had already become world champion in the pursuit in Oberhof, hardly needed a word in the interview after the relay, which she only finished in fourth place with her colleagues. Her eyes were red, her voice almost failed, and it was only with difficulty that she could avoid the flow of tears that her disappointment brought to the surface. Sport can sometimes be cruel. Tears can help you overcome many different situations and ultimately be able to move forward. “Tears,” sang the troubadour Michael Holm, “tears don’t lie.” Unless they're crocodile tears.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich The multi-award-winning sports journalist (including the German Television Award, Bavarian Sports Award, Biathlon Award, World Sports Trophy) dedicates his column “Sigi's Peaks” to the entire diversity of sports and also enjoys poaching in foreign areas. Sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes dead serious or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone. Heinrich was ten years after studying sports at the Technical University of Munich editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung and has been a regular Eurosport commentator for 34 years.

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Tränen lügen nicht

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