July 9, 1989 was a feast day for German sport.
Thanks to the rainy weather in London, Steffi Graf and Boris Becker (then 20 and 21) had to play their Wimbledon finals on one day, one after the other. And both triumphed: First Steffi beat the great Martina Navratilova 6: 2, 6: 7, 6: 1, then Boris finished the Swede Stefan Edberg 6: 0, 7: 6, 6: 4.
The next morning, BILD headlined: “Germany’s most beautiful day! Steffi & Boris – that was god tennis ”.
A sports fairy tale that captivated the whole country in front of the television. And one of the many highlights in a great time: Whether Steffi’s Golden Slam the year before, Katarina Witt as Carmen at the 1988 Olympics, the legendary boxing match between Henry Maske and Graciano Rocchigiani in 1995 or Schumi’s big Formula 1 races – our list Sports holidays are long.
The problem: It is currently hardly getting any longer …
Because German sport is running out of super talent. Future world stars, with whom the whole country is cheering and who have mastered their sports, are currently not in sight.
A dreary example: Our currently best German speed skater is Claudia Pechstein – at 49 (!) Years. At the end of October she won the German championship over 5000 meters in Inzell and thus her 41st title. A slap in the face for the German youth work of the once so successful sport.
In tennis we are currently celebrating the successes of Olympic champion Alex Zverev (24). But behind him it’s getting dark in the world rankings. Not a single German who is younger than 20 years old is in the top 1000. The first teenager is Max Hans Rehberg (18), currently in 1359th place. For comparison: Spain’s tennis hopeful Carlos Alcaraz (18) is already in place 32 of the world rankings, made it to the quarter-finals at the US Open.
If you leave out team sports, especially football, you will not see a rising star anywhere. Whether in swimming, athletics, boxing or biathlon: if we had world champions en masse there in recent decades, no one among the youngsters will follow.
Why is Germany currently looking in vain for its super talent?
The problems are manifold – and unfortunately also homemade. Sports scientist Prof. Ingo Froböse (64) explains: “We have to completely reform competitive sport. We only have funding for the elite, mass sport is falling behind. For the past 20 years we have only focused on the Olympic bases. However, only talents end up there whose parents can afford to support their child. We forgot all the others. “
Froböse, who demands a grassroots sports minister from politics, continues: “We used to have talent scouting in schools – especially in the GDR. That has been completely lost. We don’t get any information from the schools about the sport or discipline in which there are talents. We have to find these treasures again. ”Otherwise, according to the sports scientist, German sport threatens to disappear permanently in the international midfield.
This was also indicated recently at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The German team only won 37 medals – in 1988 it was 142 …
Women’s tennis boss Barbara Rittner (48) sees a combination of several factors: “It’s a social problem. We have an oversupply of leisure opportunities. “
The bare numbers: The German Tennis Association lost almost one million members between 1994 (2.29 million) and 2020 (1.36 million). The DOSB reported a decrease of 854,951 members in sports clubs in 2021 – also due to corona.
Bernd Eisenbichler (45), Biathlon Sports Director: “You have to accept that the others, especially the smaller nations, have taken steps forward. In Norway, 2000 athletes compete in national championships, in Germany 200. “
Talent scouting, promotion, loss of membership – there is a lot to tackle.
But Rittner also criticizes the next generation: “The bottom line is that young people and the new generation also have less stamina. The young generation in competitive sports is doing too well. Leaving the comfort zone and tormenting yourself is very difficult. You are no longer ready to put everything on one card. “
Sports scientist Froböse also sees it this way: “We are a luxurious society, we have forgotten the will to fight. Sport is just a magnifying glass. “
Talents are there, says Rittner, but often the bite is missing. A solution to the problem is not easy: “Getting high-flyers and mega-talents is also luck. The keys to success are perseverance, passion and heart, as with Alexander Zverev. But that often falls by the wayside. “
Can we even celebrate festive days in sports in the future?
At least Froböse gives hope: “Politicians have to put grassroots sport back on the agenda and manage to disentangle the structure of sport. Then we can get the curve back. “
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