Munich’s Olympic Park of the 1972 Games is 50 years later the venue of four European Championships.
Photo: dpa/Sven Hoppe
Many Munich residents are currently visiting the Theresienwiese more often. There the monumental marquees for the Oktoberfest are growing up – or better: for the Wiesn, as they say here for the largest folk festival in the world. After two Corona cancellations, it can be held again from September 17th to October 3rd for the first time in three years.
When this news was announced, Marion Schöne breathed a sigh of relief. For the head of the Olympic Park it was clear that the European Championships, which start this Thursday, can also take place in front of spectators. She hopes for “a million fans in total”. However, this also includes some free sessions in the sports facilities and the cultural program “The Roofs”. Nevertheless, the number is an ambitious goal for the largest multisport event in Munich since the 1972 Summer Olympics at the same location.
In the Bavarian metropolis, the huge sports festival with simultaneous European championships in nine different sports has so far only really made itself felt in a few places. At Königsplatz, for example, where a 5,000-seat beach volleyball stadium and a huge climbing wall for the continent’s best athletes will attract young people in particular.
During the three-year preparation period, the organizing team also got a lot going in the cultural framework program. Sportfreunde Stiller and Materia were the top acts at the opening on Wednesday evening. But the success of this major event will ultimately depend on the number and enthusiasm of the fans on site and the viewing figures on television.
At the premiere of this mini-Olympics four years ago in Glasgow and Berlin, ARD and ZDF reached almost five million viewers a day. A spectacular figure, especially for the fringe sports represented at this new event. A total of 400,000 paying spectators were registered on site at the time. The Munich organizers would like to achieve at least as many tickets sold.
The financial success of the event, which has a budget of 130 million euros, also depends on this. So far, however, only a good 250,000 tickets have been sold. Especially in the most popular sport of these title fights, athletics, there are still big gaps in the stadium. “It’s no big secret that the bad German performance at the World Championships in Athletics didn’t exactly help us. You just need stars and German successes,” says Marion Schöne. That’s why the news came very unfavorably that there is a question mark over the start of Malaika Mihambo. The long jump world champion was infected with Corona after winning the title and only wants to decide at short notice whether she will compete in the home European Championship.
Nevertheless, the sporting line-up in Munich is impressive. Armand Duplantis certainly stands out among track and field athletes. The Swede has just set the pole vault world record at an unbelievable 6.21 meters and thus won the world championship title in the USA.
But there are also many stars in the other sports (table tennis, gymnastics, canoeing, rowing, cycling, triathlon, climbing and beach volleyball). In table tennis, the German fans are looking at the gold medalists Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll, in gymnastics at Olympic silver winner Lukas Dauser. In the beach volleyball stadium, which was already sold out on the final days, the performance of the German duo Kira Walkenhorst/Louisa Lippmann was of particular interest. The best German indoor volleyball player Lippmann presents herself for the first time on a big stage in the sand together with Walkenhorst, who became Olympic champion, world champion and twice European champion between 2015 and 2017.
When it comes to cycling, Lisa Brennauer is the main focus, alongside the BMX artists. The 2021 Olympic champion ended her career after the European Championship days in Munich: “For me it was simply the event of the European Championships in Munich – at home! The time and place feel right for this step.«
“Local Hero” Oliver Zeidler also wants to write a very special story at home on August 14 in rowing. He would like to defend his European Championship title and continue the Olympic legacy of his grandfather Hans-Johann Färber from the 1972 Summer Games at the same place. »50 years after my grandfather won the Olympics, I can also row for gold. It will be a very special moment.«
Of course, not only because of this story, a lot is remembered these days of the last Olympics in Germany 50 years ago. After all, a large part of the competitions take place in the Olympic Park, as they did back then, which is why it is considered an example of sustainability worldwide. The 2022 Winter Olympics were actually supposed to take place here, but the application failed at the time because of the vote of the population.
The European Championships are more than a consolation for this, as Marion Schöne at least thinks: »The European Championships can certainly be compared to the Olympic Winter Games, they are even bigger. We now have 4700 athletes, at the Winter Games there are almost 3000. We have 177 decisions, in Beijing there were just a little more than 100 recently be accepted again.«
In other words: Munich’s organizers want to lay the foundation for the Olympics to be held in Germany again at some point. The idea is floating around that Munich, together with neighboring regions in Austria such as Tyrol, could apply for the 2034 Winter Games. “I think the idea of a cross-national application makes perfect sense,” says Schöne. The only question is whether the people of Munich want that too – or whether the cozy Wiesn is enough for them as the top event of the year in the long run.
