Top sport for the masses: Berlin Six Day Race (January 27, 2024)
The German Olympic Sports Confederation, DOSB, reacted unusually sharply on Friday to the Federal Ministry of the Interior’s (BMI) draft for a new sports funding law. The planned “sports agency” for allocating funding is not independent. In fact, contrary to what was agreed, the federal government should have the last word. Can you understand the frustration?
I can understand this criticism well. We have been waiting for this bill for a long time. I was hoping that the Federal Ministry of the Interior would quietly put something good on paper with the DOSB. Apparently that didn’t work. On the contrary, top-class sport should now become a bureaucratic monster instead of reducing bureaucracy as announced. The unusually clear reaction from the DOSB shows that the umbrella organization is not reflected in this template at all or only insufficiently. One wonders how such a draft was even presented under these circumstances. This meant that a lot of porcelain was broken.
Have you already read the over 50-page text from Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, SPD?
We as the opposition were expressly excluded from the issue. I haven’t even seen this draft bill myself. For me at this point he came out of the box like Kai. All I know is that after the elite sports reform that was initiated in 2016 and which practically failed, a lot of uncertainty has spread in competitive sports. There was a lot of pressure on the BMI to do something better. Everyone is pushing, everyone is expecting the big hit. So now something half-baked has been presented.
What are the most important adjustment screws for you?
Firstly, it is about centralization. It is important that the best train in the best location. Even if this hurts some athletes and a lot depends on it, such as housing, studies and training places. We have already lost too much time on this discussion. Tackling this energetically has been neglected for several generations of athletes. And secondly, it’s about finally stating clearly what goal should be pursued with top-class sport: Should the funding aim to achieve the maximum number of medals at the Olympic Games – as a former top athlete, I of course support this – or is the majority of political will going that way to strive for some level of equality in funding and always just want to be there in some way? Then you have to say it clearly and understandably for everyone.
After all, it is stated that the Federal Republic wants to be among the top five nations at summer games and among the top three at winter games.
What does that mean if the question about prioritization – which is extremely important for me personally – remains unanswered? If it is not defined how we want to achieve these placements and in which sports we want to win the necessary medals, it is simply a declaration of intent without consistently working towards it.
A new low was reached with ninth place in the nations ranking at the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo. Skeptics fear that things could go even further downhill at the Summer Games in Paris from July 26th to August 11th this year.
I do not believe that. Team Germany can always get medals somewhere, whether in horse riding or team sports, in canoeing and rowing or other disciplines in which we draw on our know-how from the Sports Equipment Research Center FES (Institute for Research and Development of Sports Equipment, jW) can be used in Berlin. This also applies to track cycling, which has been a reliable source of medals for decades. However, we have too few associations with this continuity and predictability. Too much of it is coincidence and piecemeal, rather than the result of a top-class sports system based on classical teachings. A basic problem that has been known for years, but has never been addressed at the root.
