2022 Track Cycling World Championships: Cycling star Hinze ready for a holiday - "My body has shown me signs"

Emma Hinze was longing for a holiday on Crete. After another chance of gold for the serial world champion at the title fights on the Olympic track in Paris was dashed, the 25-year-old drew a line in the sand and pulled out of the World Championships a day early.

Hinze justifies waiver

"I realise that my body has sent me a signal and I just have to accept that. It won't do me any good if I only run backwards afterwards," said Hinze, explaining her decision not to compete in the final keirin discipline.

• Friedrich wins gold in the keirin

She had already had a taste of the Olympics anyway. Not only did she have to battle against two very strong French rivals, but also against 5000 spectators who frenetically cheered the weaker times of the German top favourite compared to her favourite Marie-Divine Kouamé in the 500-metre time trial on Saturday.

Unfair or simply French national pride? Hinze did not want to deal with this question. "I only noticed the noise level before and after. I can't change it. When we race in Berlin, the crowd is on our side. You have to deal with it," said the Hildesheim native. National coach Jan van Eijden had a similar view: "The question is: Is the crowd for the French or against the Germans? That's a matter of interpretation. When you're in Colombia, it's similar. It's similar with the British."

Balance: bronze, silver and gold

Nevertheless, the cauldron was a good dress rehearsal for Paris 2024. "It's good to experience it like this. You can then adjust to it in a completely different way," said Hinze, who seemed to be at the end of her tether after two gruelling years.

Hinze travels on holiday with a set of medals - gold in the team sprint, silver in the time trial and bronze in the sprint. That is a haul that her weakening male team-mates can only dream of. But other standards are often applied to an exceptional athlete like Hinze, who landed a triple coup in Berlin in 2020 at the age of 22. Expectations that she also has of herself.

After finishing third in the sprint, Hinze had already emphasised "that it's mentally exhausting when you're always the hunted". Pressure that she had already felt at the Olympics in Tokyo, when the ease was suddenly gone and "only" silver in the team sprint was achieved. Afterwards, the sprinter also sought advice from a sports psychologist. Hinze also had to deal with pressure situations on the wooden oval in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. She wanted to free herself from all constraints. "I don't have to do anything, I just have to have fun," she said.

"I was a scaredy-cat inside"

Record-breaking world champion Kristina Vogel was able to empathise with Hinze. "It's super difficult to deal with the pressure. Looking back, I can say that I was a mental wreck here and there. I didn't show it on the outside, but inside I was a scaredy-cat. Everyone is nervous in the semi-finals," Vogel told the German Press Agency and didn't think it was a bad thing that Hinze and Co. didn't dominate everything at the World Championships: "It's better that things go wrong at the dress rehearsal and go well at the Olympics. We could live with that. You fall to get up again."

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