Wolfhounds and Bears at the Olympics

EHe is already a star of these Olympic Games, even if he narrowly missed out on gold. He competed in the cross-country skiing qualification in Tesero, then suddenly he didn’t feel like it anymore – and went to the neighboring village. We’re talking about the dog that suddenly appeared on the trail during the women’s team sprint, followed the Greek Konstantina Charalampidou and the Croatian Tena Hadzic and chased them to the finish – including a snapshot from the photo finish camera. The headline smelled scandal Bild: “Suddenly scared while cross-country skiing! Olympic athlete: ‘I thought it was a wolf…'”.

Of course, it was a Czech wolfhound living in Tesero who picked up the trail on the trail. But a sweet wolfhound: He simply escaped, wanted to go for a walk alone, then showed that he could keep up with the best at the Olympics and sniffed around the athletes a little. Then he ran away, after the qualifying, before the final. Being there is everything!

There are always some really good stories in the games. In Rio 2016, capybaras and caimans roamed the Olympic golf course, but without interfering with an athlete putting. A golf club like that commands respect. In 2024, a whale jumped out of the water during the surfing competitions off Tahiti, but also at a safe distance from the Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb – then a big wave when it submerged again.

What if a wolf or even a bear gets in Johannes Hosflot Klaebo’s way?

By the way, the eagles that fly from the jumps in Predazzo ten kilometers north of Tesero, i.e. the real ski jumpers, didn’t hear anything about the dog story. These days, in the spring-like Val di Fiemme, they are having to contend with heavy snowfall during their air shows. In addition, like on Thursday at the Nordic Combined, they have to avoid leaf and snow blowers. One almost touched the US Eagle Ben Loomis in the inrun lane (the man holding the device did not see Loomis take off), but Loomis still flew and landed perfectly.

Which brings us back to Lupus, the wolf. There are reportedly 26 packs of wolves living in the area. And there are also plenty of brown bears in Trentino, although Gaia, the problem bear and half-sister of Bruno, the problem bear, has long since been relocated to the Wolf and Bear Park in Bad Rippoldsau-Schapbach in the Black Forest.

On Saturday and Sunday, the 50-kilometer cross-country skiing rounds off the Olympic competitions in Val di Fiemme. What if somewhere at the back of the mountainous route a wolf or even a bear stands in the way of Johannes Hosflot Klaebo’s eleventh Olympic gold medal? The South Tyrolean gamekeeper Markus Plattner once said: “You don’t know where the bear sleeps.” And, very important, please keep dogs on a leash! “Because if the dog runs into the forest and meets the bear, he’ll come back and bring the bear with him, for sure. And then that’s a problem.” Even if it’s a Czech wolfhound.