Eberhard Gienger in March 2011 at the presentation of a series of stamps »For Sport«
You won the Olympic bronze on the horizontal bar in 1976, and you still take frequent gymnastics for granted today. How do you experience the shutdown?
The sports hall is currently closed for me too, so I’ve expanded my office. It’s only a bit difficult with the giant rim and the double somersault. Before Corona, my bicycle ergometer stood unnoticed in the corner for two years, now I use it regularly, put a mat on myself, I also do strength training, and I always have my handstand with me anyway. All in all, I’ve put together a nice program of up to two hours. It cannot be compared with normal training on the equipment, but it does at least maintain the muscles.
And as a sports politician?
Sports fare similarly to gastronomy, where there are huge differences between a dignified restaurant and a pub, which is very crowded. It’s the same in sport, golf or tennis cannot be compared to judo or boxing. In the past few months, sports clubs and amateur and recreational athletes have shown what they are capable of under corona conditions. In this respect, I would have liked a little more differentiation in the regulations. On the other hand, the more you think about it, the more complicated it gets.
Members resign, there have been almost no entries since March. Systems lie fallow, trainers and freelance trainers are on the street. What consequences do you fear for around 90,000 clubs?
Keeping the members in the clubs is one of the core questions for me and probably the greatest challenge for the sports clubs. That worked well in the first lockdown, and I very much hope and assume it will this time too. But I also know: It’s all a tightrope walk. The mere fact that no new members join for months is bloodletting. If it has been the case up to now that we were able to take note of resignations in a relaxed manner because there were new registrations, there is no longer this normal fluctuation. And that’s threatening in the long run if it stays that way.
Around eight million volunteers are indispensable in organized sport. How do you represent the interests of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group as the spokesman for the Sport and Volunteering Working Group?
Volunteers are the backbone of the sporting business, there is no question about that – and I know that the countries that are responsible for popular and recreational sport are doing their best. They provide material and non-material assistance, which the clubs can access. However, it is not just the concrete support that is important, but the political message that is contained and associated with it: We know about the value of volunteering and club sports, and we won’t let you down!
Football is allowed to fulfill its TV contracts, and the federal government provides 200 million euros for professional sport. What kind of help can mass sport expect in terms of damage limitation?
In addition to the bridging aid with 200 million euros for professional and semi-professional clubs in the first, second and third Bundesliga for various team sports, we direct our gaze to the German Olympic Sports Confederation, the leading sports associations, the German sports youth, the German Sports Aid Foundation and national events such as “Youngsters are training for the Olympics and Paralympics” or the German Gymnastics Festival in Leipzig, which was canceled for 2021 and for which we will now make reallocations in the budget. Last but not least, our focus is on top athletes. We also want to initiate protective measures for the cancellation of major national championships. And I would like to refer to the planned »Restart« program, which is intended for technical adjustments to the sports infrastructure, the implementation of hygiene concepts, test systems and much more. The approach always means: alleviate hardships.
