The former decathlon star Frank Busemann is enthusiastic about the new world champion Leo Neugebauer. “What he has now shown in Tokyo is what he can do. This is nothing that somehow fell from heaven and what he can never repeat,” said Busemann in the RAN interview: “If you think about what his potential is, then the trend goes towards 9000 points.”
The 50-year-old ARD expert, in 1996 in Atlanta itself, justified his assessment with the corresponding development opportunities of the freshly chosen “king of athletes”.
In any case, on the way to winning the title with 8804 points, the Recklinghausen believes that “disciplines were there, in which he had air up”. Busemann expressly cited the pole vault (“okay”), the hurdle run (“not good”), long jump and 100 m run (“he can do better”).
Neugebauer also has the stuff of the new leading figure for athletics in Germany in Busemann’s eyes. “Exactly such guys are needed for it. People who take a positive charisma who stand with open arms and hug the world,” said the Westphalia, and thus also certified the half-old Neugebauer star characteristics.
“He is therefore not quite as intensive here”
However, Neuebauer’s center of life in the USA could have a risk of popularity and role model function of the Silver Medal winner of Paris 2024, as Busemann explained the “little hunting”: “He is therefore not quite as intensive here, and there are not in the stadium every weekend, such as footballers.”
Less euphorically than Neugebauer’s future chances, Busemann assesses the situation of German athletics. “The problem is the transition between the youth and adult area. Of course, one wonders why other nations can do it better. The demands that we had with all the medals 20 years ago are no longer feasible. You have to look left and right, which is supposed to make smaller countries better,” said the former junior world champion and emphasized: “The conveying systems asked.”