"Wanted too much"

Charlize Mörz’s floor routine fails in gymnastics qualification

Charlize Mörz

(Bild: GEPA)

At the Olympic Games in Paris, artistic gymnast Charlize Mörz failed her freestyle routine on her special apparatus floor. The gymnast from Burgenland was awarded 11.733 points for her performance on Sunday. The 18-year-old was a long way off the top eight needed for the apparatus final. Even in the all-around, in which she finished 57th, the final of the top 24 was out of the question.

The youngest ÖOC participant at these Games fell right at the start in the Tsukahara in the first lane. This meant that all chances of reaching the apparatus final were gone just a few seconds after the start. "I can't explain to myself why it happened like that. I warmed up well, felt good and had a lot of power. Then I just wanted too much, I wanted to open early, then it was too early and unfortunately I had to roll off," said Mörz.

She may have been a little nervous, but she was also focused and concentrated. "I tried to keep fighting. I got through somehow, but it wasn't my best performance," admitted the teenager, but also emphasized the positive aspects. "Now it's time for me to get up and keep going. I'm definitely taking a lot of experience with me."

These include the atmosphere in the hall. "The atmosphere was amazing. It was a super-cool competition, there were loads of spectators, also because we were in the group with France," said Mörz. Incidentally, her father Michael was not there - the former Austrian national team player was so nervous before his daughter's performance that he went on a trip to Euro Disneyland with her brother as announced and decided not to visit the Arena Bercy.

Charlize Mörz had secured Austria's first ever World Cup victory in women's gymnastics on 10 March in Baku with 13.566 points, thereby also securing qualification for the Paris Games. This performance also gave her a slight outside chance of reaching the floor final. On the other three apparatus, Mörz scored 12.500 on vault, 11.766 on uneven bars and, after a dismount, 11.100 points on balance beam, in that order. With a total of 47.099 points, she came 57th out of 60 athletes.