GERMANY: OLYMPICS - German canoeist and Olympic champion Andreas Dittmer looks for more medals in Beijing

Record ID: 785322

  • Title: GERMANY: OLYMPICS - German canoeist and Olympic champion Andreas Dittmer looks for more medals in Beijing
  • Date: 20th June 2008
  • Summary: DITTMER CARRYING HIS CANOE DITTMER GETTING INTO CANOE AND PADDLING OFF DITTMER CANOEING
  • Embargoed: 5th July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAD69D1JB75R3EBT0AFZ0T8603K
  • Story Text: German canoeist and three-time Olympic champion Andreas Dittmer intends to return from the Beijing Games "with a small souvenir", even though he is now 36.
    German canoeist and three-time Olympic champion Andreas Dittmer is ready for the 2008 Beijing Games and hopes to bring back a "souvenir".
    German canoeists took five wins in the 12 Olympic boat disciplines at the world cup in Duisburg with Dittmer himself taking a first and a second.
    Two days later on Thursday (June 17) he told Reuters Television that "the atmosphere of Olympic Games becomes like an addiction".
    The Duisburg event was seen as a sort of dress rehearsal for Beijing and Dittmer, now 36, can't wait to participate a fourth time.
    "That's where I got my motivation and energy from, to do it one more time."
    "I am hugely excited," Dittmer said as he was training in Duisburg on Tuesday (June 17).
    "I know that unforgettable days are awaiting me. I am full of hope and I'm really looking forward to it."
    Dittmer competes in the elite C1 discipline, kneeling in a highly unstable sprint canoe and using just one paddle. The other discipline is kayak, in which the athlete sits and uses a double-bladed paddle.
    Germany will send 17 competitors to the canoe events in China and Dittmer says: "I returned from Olympic Games very successfully three times and of course I hope that I'll be able to return with a small souvenir from Beijing."
    "I'm training hard but the competition is very strong. This year's races at the world cup have been very tight where just a few hundreths of a second were decisive."
    The races in Duisburg were preceded by another world cup in the Hungarian town of Szeged at the beginning of June where he came in second and the European championships in Milan, Italy.
    Dittmer first took part at Summer Games in Atlanta in 1996 when he won gold in a two-man canoe.
    At the 2000 Sydney and the 2004 Athens Games, Dittmer scored Olympic gold in a one-man canoe.
    Asked whether he was superstitious, the canoeist from the eastern German town of Neubrandenburg said: "...you also need some luck to win the medals of the right colour."
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