Daniel Eich puts on a great show in the judo hall in Paris, but ends up empty-handed. But the 24-year-old from Aargau can still laugh.
A medal can't slip out of your hands - or be snatched - much more dramatically than Daniel Eich on Swiss National Day in Paris. For around 30 seconds, the word "Winner" appeared on the board after Eich's name. But the man from Aargau sensed that disaster was coming.
A mistake had been made; his opponent for bronze, the Israeli Peter Paltchik, had mistakenly been given a double warning (shido); the disqualification was reversed.
Extremely fair loser
An absolutely correct decision, as the extremely fair loser explained afterwards. "Of course you think, please let it stand," Eich admitted. "It would have been cool. But I don't feel cheated at all. It would have been a garbage win." This left him in 5th place in the weight class up to 100 kg (there are two third places in judo).
Eich had shone in the morning with three sometimes spectacular victories, including against the world number three and World Championship silver medallist Shady Elnahas, and electrified the hall. The chants of "Let's go, Dani" kept coming. Before the three-hour lunch break, he told Keystone-SDA: "Everything that comes next is a bonus."
In the end, however, he felt like Fabienne Kocher three years ago in Tokyo. Three victories were followed by two defeats in the semi-final and the battle for bronze.
In the mix until the end
However, he was able to categorize his competition surprisingly quickly. "It's kind of a bitter result," he said. "But I'm also glad that I was able to fight until the end. The atmosphere in the hall is mega cool, and in the end I was even close to winning a medal." After all, he wasn't one of the favorites. Now he had to come to terms with the fact that he was in the mix until the very end.
In the semi-final, Eich was on his back after just nine seconds. "That's never happened to me before." He wasn't actually nervous. He was only focused on the fight and not on the medal. But perhaps he was "not fully awake" after the medal. "It would have been very difficult against the Georgian either way."
He was closer in the bronze medal fight, where he had to concede a small score to Paltchik one minute before the end. "After that, he's just a professional, extremely stable. "The moment I was able to grab him a bit, he did his diving technique. That was very clever tactically."
Vacations and skateboarding
Eich now has a long vacation ahead of him. "I'll be taking a break from judo for the next three to four months, so I won't be training for sure," he said. Then he can devote himself to his great hobby, skateboarding, again. He put that on the back burner in the months leading up to the Olympics. He would have loved to go and watch the skateboarding competitions in Paris, but "unfortunately I didn't get a ticket."
After the break, however, he already has his sights set on Los Angeles 2028. "I'm already in the mood for more Olympics," he assured.
