Ricarda Funk takes silver in Ivrea

Ricarda Funk grinned and held up the bouquet of colorful papers with one hand, proudly showing off her silver medal with the other. “It wasn’t easy to get back into competition mode,” said the slalom canoeist from Bad Kreuznach. “But I was back in the flow, I followed my intuition. And it was fun.” Fun that Funk had to work hard to get back into after her dramatic final run at the Olympic Games.

Back to lightness

As Olympic champion in Tokyo, Funk was also on course for a medal in Paris – until she made a serious mistake at gate 20 in the final. She did not complete the gate posts. The result: 50 penalty points, eleventh place and the end of her dream of another Olympic medal.

At the World Cup in Ivrea, Italy, however, the ease seemed to return. Although Funk received six penalty seconds in the semi-finals of the single kayak, he still made it to the final with a strong time – the only one from the German team.

Funk: “Good feeling on the water”

The races in the women’s single kayak slalom canoe were postponed on Friday due to the adverse weather conditions in Ivrea. Funk used the time to post a photo with a book on Instagram – and managed not to lose focus between the gusts of wind and the pages of the book. “I had a good feeling on the water, that’s always my goal,” she said.

In the final, she improved her time from the semi-final by 1.27 seconds – but again touched the goal post and received two penalty seconds. Funk was happy with silver, while Funk’s good friend Stefanie Horn from Italy took the win with a flawless run. Bronze went to Eva Tercelj from Slovenia. The kayak cross is still to be decided on Sunday – perhaps Funk will get another medal and a bouquet of paper flowers.