Athletics World Championships in Athletics
German debacle – “Training camps selected for red wine estates”
Status: 1:38 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
One of many disappointments: Joshua Hartmann (left) and Lucas Ansah-Peprah after the end of the German sprint relay
Source: dpa/Ashley Landis
Former world-class decathlete Rico Freimuth is appalled by the German track and field athletes’ medalless performance at the World Championships. The officials are complicit in the “disaster”. There is a funny culture in the association.
Former decathlete Rico Freimuth described the German Athletics Association’s record without a medal at the World Championships as a “disaster” – and harshly criticized the DLV leadership. “It makes your athletics heart bleed,” said the 35-year-old vice world champion from 2017 in an interview with TV channel Eurosport on Tuesday. “Of course there are some athletes who have performed great. But you only end up in the sports show in the evening if you get a medal – that’s the reality.
At the same time, he accused the DLV managers of misconduct and too little concentration on the essentials. “We now have a funny culture that has been naturalized in the DLV for years,” said Freimuth. “Some of the training camps are chosen based on where the red wine estates are located – so that coaches and officials can drink red wine there in the evenings.”
Analysis: Rico Freimuth is sharply critical after the World Championships in Athletics without a medal
Source: dpa/Bernd Thissen
DLV plan is crazy
That’s why being a trainer requires a completely different culture. “Coaches need to focus better and more seriously on athletes, and athletes need more money so that they can approach training more seriously,” Freimuth said. “Sport has to be 100 percent in focus and not some other rubbish.” If you’re in the training camp for four weeks, there should be nothing else but training if you want to be among the best in the world: “You can’t do that if you’re half serious and only approach the matter with 80 percent.”
also read
Freimuth considers the DLV’s announcement that it wants to be one of the top five athletics nations by the time of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles to be “a bit ludicrous and dubious” so shortly after the World Cup. He simply cannot imagine what should happen “so that we end up among the top five nations in five years”.
