Mujinga Kambundji misses the Olympic final in the 200-meter sprint for the fourth time. "It's not a failed championship because of that," emphasizes the athlete from Bern.
"It does bother me," she admits. Instead of the required 22.36 seconds, it was 22.63 - 11th place of all the semi-finalists. The 32-year-old never really got going in her specialist discipline: "I couldn't make the most of my capacities," she sums up. She didn't find her way into the race in the bend, she didn't fly out of the bend as usual and her tank was empty at the end.
Nevertheless, the Swiss sprint queen does not want to let this spoil her Olympic mood. "If it was only supposed to be a final, then I got the right one with the hundred," she says.
In Paris, too, the Bernese athlete is putting in performances that cannot be overestimated and that nobody once thought she was capable of. After her double three years ago at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo and the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Kambundji will be in at least one of the two sprint finals in 2024. Since her bronze medal in the 200 meters at the World Championships in Doha 2019, she has been at the top of the world rankings. The summer of 2023 was the only one that went poorly for the world and European indoor champion due to inflammation of her plantar fascia.
Faster and faster
The athlete from Bern, who competed as a relay runner at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, still remembers the early days of her career well. Back then, Swiss sprinters were told to focus on the relay because they had no chance internationally as soloists. Mujinga stuck to her ambitions and was successful.
It takes more than just sprinting genes. The Bernese athlete paved the way for Swiss athletes to turn professional, was not discouraged by numerous fourth places at European level, changed coaches several times and got faster and faster up to the age of 30.
"I'm proud of this consistency," she says. It shows that you have done a lot of things right. Top-class sport is a balancing act. "Injuries are part of it, but they usually have a reason." For this reason, the field in Paris over 200 meters is also somewhat thinned out: the ticket for the half track lap was cheaper than for the 100 meters.
Mujinga Kambundji felt the double burden of the two sprints in Paris. She already had to bite in the 200-meter preliminary race. Now she has one more day off for the relay. The quartet needs a fresh number 1 to make it to the final like in Tokyo.
