Former tennis professional Michael Stich has been honored with the “Golden Sports Pyramid”. Deutsche Sporthilfe honored the 1991 Wimbledon winner not only for his sporting successes and professional achievements, but also for his social commitment. “This is one of the highest awards in German sport and it’s nice that it is awarded by athletes who know what it means to fight your way through sport,” said Stich at the award ceremony on Thursday evening.
At the age of 55, Stich considered it “still too early” to speak of a life’s work, but he sees the sports pyramid as an award that honors not only his active career, but also the time afterwards.
Stich was one of the most successful tennis players in the world in the 90s, winning Olympic gold in doubles at Wimbledon, becoming ATP world champion and leading the German team to Davis Cup victory. After his career, he worked, among other things, as organizer and director of the tournament at Rothenbaum. Since 1994, Stich and his team have been working in the foundation named after him for children, young people and their families suffering from the HIV virus and have been carrying out educational work on the subject of HIV and AIDS.
In addition to Stich, Kristina Vogel, boxing trainer Ulli Wegner and five-time biathlon world champion Kati Wilhelm were also honored on Thursday. They are now members of the “German Sports Hall of Fame” – Michael Stich has been there since 2015. For the former track cyclist Vogel, it is a “gigantic honor to join the ranks of sporting legends”.
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Vogel has been paralyzed since a training accident in 2018. The award is an important sign for her: “I can still play a part in sport,” said Vogel, who is a two-time Olympic champion, seventeen-time world champion and therefore one of the most successful track cyclists in history.
