In many disciplines, Germany has simply lost touch with the world leaders. Why have some successful sports been in crisis for several years? April 11, 2024 | 43:18 minutes
At the 1988 Olympic Games, German athletes won a total of 142 medals. 40 for the Federal Republic of Germany and 102 for the GDR. It was the year in which figure skater Katarina Witt won gold, and boxer Henry Maske also became an Olympic champion. From Germany, fencer Arnd Schmitt and swimmer Michael Groß won gold.
At the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, German athletes won 36 medals.
In athletics, the negative trend in the success records of top German sport is even clearer: at the World Championships in Budapest last year, the German team came away empty-handed – for the first time ever at the World Athletics Championships. So where has the know-how in top German sport gone? Where is the passion? The Rapture? The absolute will to succeed?
Athletics Association
:DLV disempowers head coach Stein
After the World Cup debacle, the German Athletics Association (DLV) is changing the responsibilities in the executive suite. Head coach Stein is disempowered and sports director Bügner is strengthened.
There is a lack of funding in top-class sport
It has become more difficult to be successful internationally. The world leadership is broader than ever, and more and more nations are at the top. That’s one thing. But it has apparently also become more difficult to be a top athlete or top coach in Germany.
Athletes repeatedly complain about a lack of financial and emotional recognition. They laboriously practice the balancing act between a sporting and professional career, scraping together every cent from various funding sources. And when they put down their spikes or paddles, they might have a few medals in the display case, but no pension points. Others of the same age have a huge career advantage in their jobs.
Olympic kayak champion Ronald Rauhe criticizes the possible budget cuts for the sports research institute FES. He calls for a rethink by the federal government.05.09.2023 | 3:45 minutes
Top trainers: overtime and low pay
And the trainers? In Germany you need an inexhaustible reservoir of intrinsic motivation. Because their job hardly enjoys social recognition. And as a rule, and outside of football, the remuneration does not correspond to the effort.
Lorenz Trautmann, the U21 national coach of the German judo women for seven years, explains in the sportstudio report “Is Germany’s top sport on the brink?” that he works six to seven days, sometimes up to 60 hours, per week. “I can’t just do my job by the book,” he says. This cannot be reconciled with the desire to be competitive and successful.
According to a survey by the professional association, national coaches of Olympic sports in Germany earn an average of 4,000 euros gross per month. Around 30 percent have fixed-term contracts and over 80 percent regularly work overtime. At the same time, the pressure to succeed from the donors, i.e. the Ministry of the Interior and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), is extremely high, says Trautmann:
We can’t afford to come home without medals every other year.
Lorenz Trautmann
Bob Hanning calls for reform
:”The system of top-class sport is sick”
Handball official Bob Hanning has given the German sports system a damning report and is proposing concrete “immediate measures to save German sport”.
He loves what he does, but: “In Germany, the job of trainer is always associated with a bit of fun for children,” says Trautmann. When he says he’s a coach, he often hears the question: “Is that his job?” Trautmann is convinced that with more recognition for the job, both financially and in terms of social perception, more athletes could be persuaded to later pass on their experiences and know-how as coaches.
Top coaches seek recognition abroad
Currently, many people prefer to choose a career in which they can earn more money. Or go abroad. Four former Olympic medal winners in judo alone work as trainers elsewhere. The Indian javelin throw Olympic champion is coached by a German. Olympic canoe champion Andreas Dittmar works in Canada. To name just a few examples.
Ronald Rauhe, one of the most successful German canoeists, ended his career after the Tokyo Games. He consciously didn’t want to become a coach. “I’ve seen how coaches are treated for 25 years,” says the 42-year-old, “and I don’t think that’s right.” Young Germans will hardly benefit from his enormous knowledge of canoeing and the paths to success.
Qualification for the 2024 Olympics
:These German teams are going to Paris
Basketball, table tennis, volleyball: All six national teams from these sports have already qualified for Paris 2024 – and there is even more reason for Olympic hopes.
by G. Crispin, B. Bühler
2024-04-13 06:35:46
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