• Lufthansa is partner and official airline of "Team D”
• Over 400 athletes and support teams fly to Olympic Games on four special flights
• Sporting equipment and luggage is sent  with Lufthansa Cargo 

With great excitement and in happy expectation of many successful competitions, around 100 athletes, coaches and support staff took off for Beijing today.

At 5:45 p.m. it was "all doors in flight" for the Boeing 747-8 “Brandenburg” with the registration D-ABYA at Frankfurt Airport. Flight captain Christian Leyhe and his crew welcomed the teams on board: luge doubles with Tobias Arlt, Sascha Benecken, Toni Eggert and Tobias Wendl, figure skating, freeskiing, women’s alpine skiing, biathlon, snowboard halfpipe and ski jumping with Karl Geiger and Katharina Althaus.

Before taking off the team was bid farewell in the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge.  DOSB Vice President Miriam Welte and Lufthansa Airlines CEO Klaus Froese wished the athletes good luck for the competitions.

"We are happy the day of departure for Team D has finally arrived," said DOSB President Thomas Weikert, delegation head in Beijing. "In only four days, the opening ceremony will take place and anticipation is growing. We are flying to Beijing with a strong team and I am sure that our athletes will be outstanding role models for society and ambassadors for our country."

Miriam Welte, Vice President of the DOSB and member of the delegation leadership in Beijing, added: "From my experience, I can say the Olympic Games are the absolute highlight of any athlete’s career. The athletes can be proud of making it this far. Now it’s a matter of showing their best personal performance at the right time on the world stage."

Lufthansa Airlines CEO Klaus Froese said; "It’s traditional that Team Germany flies to Olympic Games with Lufthansa. This is a very special task for us and one we always do happily and with great pride."

Lufthansa Cargo has already flown 100 tons of sporting equipment and baggage to Beijing in recent weeks. For many years, the "cargo crane" has been a reliable partner for transporting sporting equipment for Olympic teams. Something that is particularly time-critical and requires great care and experience.

Due to current restrictions, only the photo agency dpa Picture-Alliance as well as SID Marketing, media partners of Team Germany could be invited to the farewell ceremony.