Ice skating couple Hocke/Kunkel: collecting donations for sport – sport

Sometimes in figure skating it is the edge of the blade that determines success. And sometimes everything hangs on a piece of twine. The pair skaters Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel had to mend their costumes almost after every competition last season; sometimes there was a small hole here, sometimes an open seam there. Because the glitter fabric is exposed to extreme stress during acrobatics, a new freestyle outfit was needed. And in addition, says Robert Kunkel, there was also tailoring work to be done on the second costume for the short program; The judges had indicated that they didn’t really like it – “and they’re judging us.” The whole thing is expensive. For two people and two programs, it would quickly add up to 3,000 to 6,000 euros.

And who pays for that? “Well, we!” say Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel. Are there no subsidies for the costumes? “Not a euro.”

A lot of things are on point in this sport, which hides hard work behind the illusion of dancing lightness. The Berliners Annika Hocke, 23, and Robert Kunkel, 24, who took third place as the best German figure skaters at the European Championships in Finland in the winter, publicly drew attention to financial bottlenecks months ago: The support of the German Ice Skating Union (DEU), They calculated that it was far from covering their costs. In April they wondered whether they would be able to make ends meet until October. In the meantime, they thought about changing the bandage.

DEU President Andreas Wagner points to the association’s need to make savings: “Almost 250,000 euros are missing.”

On Thursday they will appear at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, their second competition of the season, and Robert Kunkel says that the situation has “fortunately gotten better, so hopefully we can get through the year.” But, he adds: “It’s not the association’s fault.” They did receive another amount from the DEU to pay for their coach’s overseas trips to the Grand Prix competitions. But when they were particularly short on cash, donations – from strangers – helped.

You have been training in Bergamo, Italy, with Ondrej Hotarek’s renowned team for a year. And because, as they say, they had to “grab at every straw” to finance their sport there, they also asked former German champion and ARD figure skating expert Daniel Weiss for advice in May. Weiss wrote a few lines on his Facebook page, including a reference to the donation account that SCC Berlin, Hocke/Kunkel’s club, manages for the duo. A lot has come together, says the couple: “Daniel Weiss’s commitment and the support of SCC Berlin took away our fears.”

Weiss finds the situation sad: “In my opinion, the association was only managed for years and led into the future with less innovation.” Added to this is the fact that the DEU was placed far down in the ranking of the potential analysis, which is crucial for the federal government’s allocation of funds. The new DEU President Andreas Wagner, in office since October 2022, therefore points to the association’s need to make savings: “Almost 250,000 euros are missing.”

“It is important to know,” says Wagner, “that state funding was drastically reduced as of January 1, 2023.” This does not affect personnel costs, but does affect the direct funds budget, which is used to cover travel costs for the athletes: This was halved. “So it wasn’t the DEU that cut funds. The funds were cut from us,” says the head of the association.

Pair skaters Hocke/Kunkel explain what this means for budget planning at the base in Bergamo. The annual expenditure just for sport is around 70,000 euros – excluding rent, heating and food. “We will receive the current financing guidelines from the DEU before the start of the season. We know what we can expect, and that is little. Before the travel allowance for the coach came, it was around ten percent of what we spend.”

They have to fill the financing gap from other means: In addition to the DEU funds, they receive sports aid, a small amount of support from the Berlin Olympic base, from sports funding and their Bundeswehr salaries, which are “actually intended for living costs and social security,” says Kunkel. There are also donations and their own funds: so far, both say, they have been able to make ends meet because they are using their savings.

The costs would be lower if they trained in Berlin instead of in expensive Bergamo, where they have to pay for ice time, trainers and physiotherapy. The DEU points this out, and Hocke/Kunkel also say it themselves. But a return is not an option for the time being. They left the base because, among other things, they complained about a lack of competition and poor ice quality.

Ten percent of the prize money for athletes goes to the association

The bronze medal that Hocke/Kunkel won at the European Championships was the DEU’s first since the glory days of the gold pair Savchenko/Massot in 2018. They don’t doubt that the association was happy, but could have been a little more accommodating, for example with the prize money they already wanted: because ten percent of all bonuses that they win in competitions have to be paid to the DEU. According to Hocke/Kunkel, this tax, this tithe, added up to an amount at the European Championships, World Championships, Grand Prix and Challenger Series with which they could have paid for one and a half to two months of training more. They call this practice incomprehensible.

The DEU, on the other hand, refers to a “specified standard rate” from the world association ISU. “Of course,” says President Wagner when asked, “an association is free to forego this. We would like to do that too. But that would also tear a hole in the coffers.” In fact, according to the DEU boss, the better athletes who generate prize money support the others with this ten percent: “We think that’s reasonable.”

In view of the budget cuts, the DEU had to think carefully about what could still be financed and what could not, says Wagner. As far as the athletes are concerned, they “tackled it together and found a way that is workable”.

Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel now want to find a sponsor: “We still have a space available on our jacket. We can hardly advertise car parts on the back of the costume.” The DEU, hardly surprisingly, has similar plans, as President Wagner says: “We have to generate funds.”