Sportsman of the Year: The remarkable words of the decathlete Niklas Kaul

Gina Lückenkemper beamed as after her sprint to European Championship gold, Niklas Kaul was just as touched by his sister Emma’s emotional laudation as by the European Championship title in the decathlon, and Eintracht Frankfurt President Peter Fischer once again enjoyed the pictures of the Europa League triumph. The two athletics aces and the Bundesliga soccer club from Main are Germany’s “Sportsman of the Year” 2022.

The winners of the 76th sports journalist election were honored on Sunday evening at the gala in the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden. After there had been significant restrictions in the past two years due to the corona pandemic, the festive Bénazetsaal was again fully occupied with around 500 guests. Remarkably, winner Niklas Kaul later picked up on the fact that in an Olympic year with the Beijing Winter Games, no German Olympic champion won in one of the categories. Eintracht boss Peter Fischer also made some statements on another topic.

“The year could not have gone any better for me personally,” said Lückenkemper on the red carpet. “I still have to pinch myself sometimes. It was total madness.” With 1358 points, the 25-year-old relegated the long jump world champion Malaika Mihambo (863), who had won the last three consecutive games, to second place. Third place went to luge queen Natalie Geisenberger (766), who won individual and team gold at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing and became the most successful German winter Olympian with a total of six victories. “Many pieces of the puzzle fit,” said the soon-to-be mother of two.

Lückenkemper ran to gold over 100 meters at the European Championships in 10.99 seconds. “It was pure goosebumps. When I looked at the pictures, my heart rate was 180 again,” said the top sprinter.

Although she injured her own knee when crossing the finish line with the spikes on her running shoes, she also won the title with the 4×100 meter relay at the end of the European Championship. At that time, the laceration had to be sewn up during the night with eight stitches. “I didn’t even notice the whole thing and only realized it when blood ran down my leg and I thought, what’s so wet there,” reported Lückenkemper. But the mishap quickly became a minor matter. “I already felt like a little rock star,” said Lückenkemper after her gold sprint over the ovations of the fans in Munich’s Olympic Stadium.

Kaul: “I didn’t think I’d be standing here today”

On that August 16th, decathlon ace Kaul had just turned the arena into a party zone. With a splendid run in the final 1500-meter race, the man from Mainz snatched the title from Swiss Simon Ehammer, who had been leading up to that point, and celebrated his second major triumph after winning gold in the 2019 World Cup really a lot together,” he admitted after the European Championship triumph. “I didn’t think I would be standing here today.”

The energy performance in Munich – after eight of ten competitions Kaul was still in seventh place – brought him victory in the survey with 1256 points for the second time. Kaul had already been honored three years ago.

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Second place for men went to Vinzenz Geiger (871). The Nordic combined athlete stormed to gold in the individual competition at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing with an unforgettable performance on the last climb. Third was Germany’s top swimmer Florian Wellbrock (761). The 25-year-old returned from the World Championships with five medals, including two gold ones. “Five medals from five starts – that was amazing,” said Wellbrock.

Goosebumps with Eintracht Frankfurt

It was more exciting for the teams, where Eintracht Frankfurt prevailed with 975 points ahead of the women’s track and field sprint relay (895). Third place went to the German soccer players (828), who had impressed at the European Championships in the summer and were only stopped in the final by hosts England.

Eintracht won the Europa League on a magical night of football in Seville in May by beating Glasgow Rangers on penalties. President Peter Fischer received the award on behalf of the players and coach Oliver Glasner. “After Germany, we gave away goosebumps, gave away excitement, gave away excitement. People wrote to us from Kiel to the Zugspitze,” said Fischer.

That evening he also criticized the oversupply of football broadcasts on television. “Football is on around the clock, and the biggest rubbish is now being shown there,” said the 66-year-old. “This is absolute overconsumption and that’s not good for us as a sport.” Other sports, on the other hand, are hardly or not at all present in the media. “I would certainly distribute it differently if I could,” said Fischer. “There are a lot of fascinating things there. For me there would also be water polo or Frisbee. It’s crazy what they’ve got.”

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However, he sees little chance of a change in the TV offer. “As long as we play well, things like that will never be shown. That’s the problem,” Fischer said. He described the award that evening as deserved, but admitted: “I would have chosen the footballers.”

Kaul is aimed at winter sports enthusiasts

Niklas Kaul, on the other hand, turned his attention to the winter sports enthusiasts who, despite great success at the games in Beijing, were left empty-handed in the survey in all three categories. “I’m just sorry for the athletes,” he said honestly.

In the opinion of the 24-year-old from Mainz, such an election always plays into when and under what conditions a major event took place. “There was a time difference of seven hours at the Winter Games. So you couldn’t follow them very well. In addition, the political situation was difficult – and also the Corona situation. As a result, the sports euphoria did not arise,” said Kaul.

The track and field athletes, on the other hand, aroused a lot of emotions with their performances at the home European Championships in Munich, which was also reflected in the results of the athletes’ election, which was held for the 76th time. Kaul: “We were just lucky with Munich this year.”