Editor’s Note
As German speed skater Felix Rijhnen prepares for Olympic competition, this piece highlights the meticulous, unseen preparation behind elite performance—from diamond-polished blades to specialized partnerships. It’s a reminder that the pursuit of perfection often lies in the details.
Perfectionist: Felix Rijhnen. The speed skater is competing in Beijing. His blades are mirror-polished – with a special spray. © private
Darmstadt speed skater Felix Rijhnen is receiving help from Hanau company owner Horst Lach. The two are connected by a very special material: diamonds.
This coming Sunday at 4:30 PM local time (9:30 AM for us), Darmstadt’s Felix Rijhnen will be at the starting line in Beijing as one of six athletes from Hesse. Rijhnen’s discipline: speed skating, 5000 meters. For the 31-year-old athlete, these are his first Olympic Games. Horst Lach will undoubtedly be sitting in front of the television, cheering him on. Because Felix Rijhnen and the Hanau native, who is 50 years his senior, share a friendship – and a very special material.
Lach is the owner and – together with his son Robert – managing director of “Lach Diamant”. The company, founded in 1922 by Lach’s father Jakob, is a world leader in the development and manufacture of diamond tools, such as those used for drilling, grinding, or milling.
says company patriarch Lach, sweeping his right hand over the display cases where drills, grinding wheels, and milling cutters are exhibited like jewelry at a jeweler’s.
What does this have to do with the Winter Olympics and speed skating? “Patience,” says Horst Lach.
The connection to sports is made by synthetic diamonds, which the Hanau family business processes. To be more precise: diamond spray. This is not something the well-to-do could use to adorn themselves with sparkle and glitter. It doesn’t even glitter when sprayed, but rather resembles oven cleaner. Diamond spray indeed serves a mundane purpose: polishing metals. And yes, of course: in speed skating, that’s the blades. But patience.
Horst Lach joined his father’s company in 1960. Back then, there were three of them. Father, son, and an accountant. Before the Second World War, the company employed 600 wage grinders who shaped diamonds for Hanau’s traditionally large jewelry industry. After the war, hardly anything remained of that. The jewelry industry and wage grinding not only in Hanau but throughout Germany never really recovered. The Lach family switched to processing industrial diamonds and tool manufacturing, thus founding a company that is now active worldwide.
But Horst was also the only son, and his father – already of retirement age – needed him in the company fighting for survival. So the young man abandoned his artistic ambitions and became an industrial merchant. To this day, he is proud of having been one of the best typists at the time with 220 keystrokes per minute. He is still fast – and to this day is annoyed by the single typo in the ten-minute final exam back then.
Perhaps one must be such a perfectionist to be successful worldwide with tools. And perhaps perfectionism, alongside diamond spray, is something that connects entrepreneur Lach and top athlete Rijhnen.
They first met in 2012. Back then, Rijhnen was not yet an Olympic candidate, known only to insiders. He had heard from German bobsledders that they used a spray from Hanau to make the runners of their sleds fast. The current national coach, Norbert Loch, had come up with this idea in 2005. With diamond spray, metals can be polished not only to a mirror finish but also particularly quickly.
Rijhnen received the spray from Hanau, which is not available for retail purchase and costs well over 100 euros per bottle even for bulk customers. A lot of money for an athlete. And luck for Felix Rijhnen that Lach has supported him ever since.
Besides Rijhnen, not only many bobsled and luge athletes use the spray. Many speed skaters also now use it to bring their skate blades to a high gloss. Horst Lach does not know how many athletes in total pin their hopes of major victories on the diamonds from Hanau. Nor how many medals have already been won with it. He hopes that things go well for Felix in Beijing now. He wants to call him once more before the competitions start and wish him luck.
During the race on Sunday, son Robert and the daughters, who also work in the company, will likely also be sitting in front of the screen, keeping their fingers crossed.
says Lach.
He himself plays golf.
he says. For putting, he uses a very special putter. The central component is a synthetic diamond with an extremely smooth surface.
Lach is convinced. Faith can also work wonders.