Ludwig and Walkenhorst ride Rio storm to Olympic glory

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 17, 2016 – Germany Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst won the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games gold medal when they defeated Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) at the Copacabana Beach Arena on Wednesday. 

Here’s what they said after the match…

“It is just incredible. I’m speechless and I can say we definitely deserved to win. I think I can say that after this tournament. We played game to game and we had a strong team behind us who kept us strong and how to be self-confident with this crowd because the Brazilian crowd were very loud.

“We served very well and there was a storm coming and we thought we’d take it and make our own storm.

“There was a good end and a bad end. When we were on the good end we served well and took our chances.

“We took care of our own passing and setting and in this case we did it better.

“I was sitting and watching when Jonas (Reckermann) and Julius (Brink) won their own gold medal (at London 2012) in the stadium and I thought ‘if they can do it, I want to do it’. So from then on we fought for four years and had good years.

“In such an important tournament we were mentally focused and that is because we had a really strong team with us. 

“We spoke to Jonas as he was always calm in tough situations. He spoke about individual routines and said that over the four years to work on being mentally strong and to treat every single session like it is a final.”

“It was really hard, but right now everything is fine. We are so happy we were working four years really hard every day and it was not easy, it was a hard way, and we had dreams in those four years. We always fight together and now I'm so proud that we made it. It's an amazing feeling now.”

“I am very happy, of course we would have loved to have won the gold medal. The way we reached the final was amazing and we believed in our journey and we are delighted with the medal.

“They deserved the medal, they played better than us and we know they deserved the gold medal today. They played very well in the tournament and the final. 

“For Brazilians we have one medal and we need to be happy with this. With the men’s (Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt) we have another chance and we hope they will win.

“We enjoyed the support and loved playing here. I think all Brazilians are proud of our medal. We are lucky to have played at home. There was pressure, but we never thought about the pressure, we used the support as fuel.”

“We are different characters, she (Agatha) laughs, I cry. For the gratefulness I feel towards all that have helped us, for all we have done. They played better than us and they deserved the gold medal. But we have also fought really hard for this silver medal. We are proud of our work. This day has been wonderful.”