Throughout his career, Germany men’s superstar Christopher Rühr has regularly produced flashes of brilliance that leave fans, and occasionally opposition players, astonished.
His latest moment of inspiration arrived 19 minutes into Germany’s final Pool A match against a Great Britain team that came into the contest unbeaten. Receiving the ball at the top of the GB circle, Rühr swivelled and cracked a ferocious backhand strike just inside the right post of Ollie Payne’s goal, with the shot-stopper having little chance of saving.
Six minutes later, Rühr netted a penalty stroke which proved to be the vital goal in Germany’s 2-1 win over GB, confirming the four times Olympic gold medallists as the winners of Pool A and setting up a quarter-final meeting with Argentina on Sunday 4 August (20:00 CEST).
The fact that Christopher Rühr is even competing here at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 is little short of a miracle. In January’s Olympic qualifying tournament, Rühr sustained a cruciate ligament injury that left him utterly convinced that his Olympic dream had almost certainly ended.
“I knew immediately (when it happened) that my chances of making the Olympics were over”, said Rühr, shortly after his team’s 5-1 win against South Africa on Tuesday. “In that moment I was screaming ‘No, no, no’, on the field, because I knew, okay, that's it. Tears were shed. I cried a lot.”
While the severity of Rühr’s injury was clear, conversations with medical experts in the days that followed revealed that perhaps all was not lost.
“In the beginning, I didn't think it was possible without surgery”, continued Rühr, a central figure in the Germany team that became world champions in 2023. “I was worried I wasn’t going to make it. And then after maybe a day, people told me that you don't have to get surgery, because also it was only (a tear of) my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), not any meniscus, or any other ligament. People told me that they've (recovered from the injury quickly) before, and that gave me a lot of strength.”
The decision to avoid surgery reignited Rühr’s Olympic ambitions, with the player committing every moment he could to an intensive rehabilitation process, strengthen the muscles and ligaments around the injury to give him the best possible chance of representing Die Honamas at Paris 2024. Remarkably, that dedication has paid off handsomely.
“There would have been no chance I would have made the Olympics had I had surgery”, continued the 30-year-old attacker. “I just had a big rehabilitation process and strengthened my muscles, and now I'm wearing a brace that helps me be stable, and it's all perfect. I played after four-and-a-half months. And during the rehabilitation process, I didn't have any setbacks, so I could do every step I wanted to."
With four goals in five matches, Rühr is certainly making a telling contribution as Germany go in search of a fifth Olympic gold medal. Germany veteran Martin Zwicker, speaking shortly after his team’s win over Great Britain, was quick to recognise the incredible lengths that Rühr went to in order to make it to Paris 2024.
“It was It is his goal to be here and he did everything he could so that's really cool thing because he's such an important player for us”, said 37-year-old Zwicker, who won Olympic bronze with Rühr at Rio 2016. "He has shown (just how important he is) in every game, and that's why it was his big goal to come here. That is why he put everything in, to be here with our team.”
When asked about Rühr’s sensational opener against GB, Zwicker responded: “Yeah, but he got two, didn’t he, which is more important. For me, it doesn't need to be like a beautiful one. It's more like a score, and that's really good for the team.”
The hockey competitions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 take place from Saturday 27 July to Friday 9 August. Both the men’s and women’s competitions feature 12 teams, split into two pools of six ahead of quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal matches. For more information about the hockey competitions at Paris 2024, visit Olympics.Hockey.
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