Paralympics: Colleague Felicia Laberer wins bronze medal
Bronze for Felicia Laberer! The HZB congratulates warmly on this outstanding achievement! © https://www.kanu.de/Athleten-74456.html
Felicia Laberer wins a bronze medal in canoeing at the 2021 Paralympics in Tokyo. We are happy with her and congratulate very much. At HZB, the 20-year-old is currently an apprentice as an office management assistant. In June, the canoeist had already earned the European Championship.
Felicia finished 3rd in the preliminary race with a time of 53.022 seconds, qualifying her for the semi-finals on 4th September. She won her semifinal and finished an excellent third in the final on the same day.
We congratulate Felicia from the bottom of our hearts for this great achievement!
Together with four other canoe athletes, Felicia Laberer has participated in the Paralympics in Tokyo. In paracanoe there are single races in two boat classes, kayak and va'a. The races start over the sprint distance of 200 meters. The competitions on the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo began on Thursday, 2th September, with the preliminary heats. On Friday and Saturday, 03 and 04.09.2021, the final races took place.
Watch here the final race of Felicia Laberer.
In addition, you can watch:
- the summary of all final races of the paracanoia including the race of Felicia Laberer
- the medalist ceremony in full length
- and her Interview in the German public broadcaster ARD.
We wrote about how Felicia Laberer got into para-canoeing and prepared for her participation in the paralympics in our HZB blog post.
- Marcel Risch has been appointed Professor at the Freie Universität BerlinMarcel Risch was appointed to a W2-S professorship in the Department of Physics at Freie Universität Berlin in August 2026. His research group has been transformed into the department 'Mechanisms of Sustainable Electrocatalysis'. Risch investigates the fundamental mechanisms of electrocatalytic reactions and, on this basis, develops knowledge- and data-driven strategies to improve electrocatalysts for the sustainable production of hydrogen, fuels and chemicals.
- Hatice Mutlu appointed to the Helmholtz Institute HIPOLE in JenaProf. Dr Hatice Mutlu is the new professor of sustainable polymer chemistry at HIPOLE Jena, the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications. On 17 August 2026, she visited the HZB campus in Berlin-Adlershof including the BESSY II lightsource and discussed future collaboration with researchers and the board of directors.
- From Colombia to Berlin: Finding My Way in a New WorldIt was almost 11 p.m. when I arrived in Berlin. After a long journey from Colombia, all I wanted was to get to my accommodation, take a shower, and finally sleep.
Instead, I missed my train. Thinking it would follow the same route as the previous one as it would in my hometown of Medellín I confidently boarded the next train. About twenty minutes later, I realized something was wrong. I was heading in the wrong direction.
As if that was not enough, my phone battery was almost empty. Suddenly, I found myself alone in a city I had never visited before, late at night, speaking a language I did not understand, with no idea how to get back.
This was not how I had imagined the beginning of my first international trip....