Axel Hellmann, Erik Lesser and Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth

Axel Hellmann is fit again, day-to-day business doesn’t wait. “This morning I spoke to my managers: ‘Don’t do La Paloma now!'”, said the spokesman for the board of Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday afternoon at the FAZ congress.

The night before, his football team had achieved something extraordinary. In a football thriller, Frankfurt defeated West Ham United and are now traveling to Seville in a week and a half for the Europa League final against Glasgow Rangers. “It is all or nothing. Whoever gets the title stays in the history books, nobody remembers a second one.”

It is Eintracht’s first appearance in a final in 42 years. The cup would be a small sensation, then a place in the Champions League would also be safe. The past few years have not been easy. Because of the corona pandemic, the fans stayed away from the stadiums, but you are dependent on their entrance fees. The club writes losses in the millions. “We live from our viewers,” said Hellmann. His dream: a Champions League final in Frankfurt.

Hellmann also criticized the idea of ​​forming a Super League. Then the club of top clubs would be even more closed, even more impermeable. A team like Eintracht would hardly have a chance, and if Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were to play in such a league, it would be a big loss for the Bundesliga.

Less becomes clear

The awarding of tournaments is not only criticized in football. Former biathlon pro Erik Lesser has harsh words for China as the venue for the Winter Olympics. In Beijing, he attracted attention with statements on the human rights situation in the People’s Republic. “What defines the Olympics is destroyed and trampled on when you award the games to a country like China,” said the two-time world champion, who also won two silver medals and one bronze medal at the Olympics in his career.

The athletes could do little if the associations award the games to authoritarian states. Not taking part would hardly be an option, after all the athletes trained for participation for years. He sees the functionaries as having a duty. “After 2008, the presidents should have considered whether China would play games again in the current political situation.”

“Have to think sport in a modern way”

In his opinion, for something to change, more young people would have to get involved in the associations. “We have to think about the sport in a modern way, but there are many obstacles in the way.” Lesser believes that this is also due to the fact that most of the officials are older than 60 and are male. There is a lack of young athletes and women, such as American biathlete Clare Egan, who really fight for their ideas.

The 33-year-old Lesser basically hopes that more athletes would have the courage to use their reach to address grievances. He would like football players in particular to open their mouths more often. At the same time, he also criticized journalists who rarely asked questions outside of sport and therefore rarely gave athletes the opportunity to express themselves politically.

Nasse-Meyfarth is hoping for 2036

Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth also believes that a new form should be found for the Olympic Games. “The Olympic Games have traction, the athletes are seen, the competition is followed,” said the Olympic champion in high jump in 1972 and 1984. She remembers that the Games in Munich were intended to show that the Federal Republic was no longer the Germany of 1936. It should be friendly, cosmopolitan games. The attack on the Israeli team by Palestinian terrorists left a different picture.

Should Germany still host the Olympics under these signs? “How about it again,” says Nasse-Meyfarth. She hopes that Germany will apply to host the event in 2036. “I think we should have the courage to use this date.” It would be a strong sign – one hundred years after the games in Nazi Germany and half a century after 1976. “Now we can show even more than in Munich, that we have changed.”