The Swabian Gymnastics Association has terminated the head base trainer and the coach of Olympic gymnast Helen Kevric without notice. The public prosecutor’s office is investigating both of them.
The Swabian Gymnastics Federation (STB) has drawn further conclusions from the serious allegations made by many competitive gymnasts. On the sidelines of a media event in Stuttgart, STB managing director Matthias Ranke confirmed that the former senior base trainer at the Artistic Gymnastics Forum and the former trainer of Olympic gymnast Helen Kevric was terminated without notice in January 2026.
At the turn of the year 2024/25, around 20 gymnasts reported serious grievances, especially at the gymnastics base in Stuttgart. It was about humiliation, punishment training, training despite broken bones and weight controls. Ranke said in an interview with SWR Sport: “Over the past three months, we have had intensive discussions with affected athletes, coaches and parents and have been able to gain a lot of new insights. We were not aware of these when the original notice of termination was given.” According to Ranke, a lawyer is said to have held discussions with “eight or nine” affected people on behalf of the STB.
STB is confident about the proceedings at the labor court
The Swabian Gymnastics Association now hopes to use these new findings to win the ongoing labor court proceedings against the two coaches in the second instance. The reasons for the appeal were submitted to the responsible state labor court on time. “There will certainly be witness statements there,” said Ranke.
The gymnastics association had already responded quickly to the gymnasts’ allegations in January 2025. The association issued regular dismissals against the long-standing head base trainer and the trainer. In August 2025, the STB also released another trainer at the Kunst-Turn-Forum Stuttgart. The Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office is investigating these three trainers on suspicion of dangerous or intentional bodily harm and coercion in over 25 cases.
In the end we will come to the conclusion that these two coaches can no longer work with us.
STB managing director Matthias Ranke
The long-time base trainer and Helen Kevric’s trainer sued the Stuttgart labor court against their dismissals. The court agreed with both of them in the first instance and declared the terminations invalid at the end of 2025. The presiding judge complained that the STB had presented too little evidence of the trainer’s alleged assaults. This was due, among other things, to the fact that, at the urgent request of the investigating public prosecutor’s office, the association had not conducted its own discussions with those affected. The Swabian Gymnastics Association, which appealed against the verdicts, has now done so.
The STB managing director consciously does not want to break the baton of the trainer. “We don’t separate from them because they are bad people per se. But they perceived their training in a way that doesn’t fit with how we understand top-class sport. They did that permanently. The things that were said just don’t work that way. That’s why we had to take this step.” In addition, the STB will be able to access files from the investigating public prosecutor’s office in the near future.
The public prosecutor’s investigations are now no longer directed only against the terminated or released coaching staff, but also against managers at the Swabian Gymnastics Association. At the beginning of 2026 it became known that a current and a former member of the Presidium as well as three other (some former) employees in managerial positions were being investigated. The STB does not want to name names. Some of the accused are accused of not fulfilling their duty of supervision and of allowing physical or mental abuse.
STB differentiates between active offenders and Omission offender
The STB rejected the public prosecutor’s (preliminary) assessment. The accused persons are presumed innocent until the investigation is completed. The officers will remain in office until further notice. SWR Sport wanted to know from the Swabian Gymnastics Association why the coach was fired a year ago, even though there were no public prosecutor’s investigations at that time. And why the now accused officials continue to perform their duties even though investigations are underway against them. The STB replied: “From our point of view, there is a division into active perpetrators and those who omitted to do so. The STB released or terminated the active perpetrators, including no functionaries.”
The Regensburg criminal lawyer Jan Bockemühl explains: “Criminal law actually makes a distinction between active and inactive offenders [§ 13 Strafgesetzbuch]. Doing nothing doesn’t automatically make you a criminal. The person who fails to do so is only liable to prosecution if he or she has a special duty to protect someone (the so-called “duty of guarantor”). Another requirement is that failure to act must be just as bad as active action.”
The STB managing director is confident that there will be no charges against any employee of the gymnastics association. “Based on everything we have, I don’t think that will happen to us,” said Ranke. Nevertheless, looking back, he is self-critical. “The whole thing became public 13 months ago. When I see today what I learned, I often ask myself the question: If I had known that back then, would I have made a different decision? And I say clearly: Yes, I would have. But I didn’t know it back then.”
Nevertheless, he is at peace with himself. “I’m fine with myself. I can’t say that I should have essentially acted differently at a certain point.” Nevertheless, he sees the responsibility to regulate things differently now.
Matthias Ranke: “A different spirit blows through Art Gymnastics Forum”
Meanwhile, the Swabian Gymnastics Association has founded a task force in autumn 2025. This currently has an interdisciplinary staff of four women and four men from our own association. External experts are also expected to join in the future. This group is intended to accompany and observe the training operations and make concrete suggestions for improvement. “We approach these issues openly and honestly,” emphasizes Ranke. “There is already a different spirit blowing through the Art Gymnastics Forum. We are on the right path.”
The managing director hopes that the issue of the gymnastics scandal will be over with the end of the public prosecutor’s investigation in mid or at the latest at the end of 2026.
Difficult financial situation
Personnel changes, restructuring processes, intensive labor and criminal law discussions – All of this creates a huge gap in the till. In response to a SWR request, the Swabian Gymnastics Association said that legal fees of 360,000 euros had been incurred since reports of abuses at the Art Gymnastics Forum in 2025.
In this financially tense situation, the news that the energy company “EnBW” will no longer be the namesake of the DTB Cup in Stuttgart (March 19-22) is particularly painful from this year. EnBW was the main sponsor and namesake of the traditional event for almost 20 years. Why the exit now? When asked, the company said that the withdrawal had “no connection” to the publicized grievances at the gymnastics centers in Stuttgart and Mannheim. It was already agreed in 2024, before the allegations became known, to give the commitment a new direction: promoting young talent. EnBW has been the new main sponsor of the KiSS children’s sports schools in the STB since September 2025.
The DTB Cup has to do without a namesake this year. “You won’t be able to find a 1:1 replacement on the market within two years,” said Ranke about the unsuccessful search for a possible successor sponsor. However, they have had a lot of discussions recently and are in good spirits about having a new presentation sponsor next year.
Member contributions should increase
The difficult financial situation has consequences for the approximately 750,000 members in the almost 1,800 gymnastics and sports clubs that are under the STB umbrella. The people at the grassroots will have to dig deeper into their pockets in the future. The association has announced an increase in membership fees for 2027. The reason for this is “Corona, rising costs and unforeseen burdens”. This certainly also includes the legal fees that the STB has to pay.
Those approximately 375,000 members who are assigned to a gymnastics department will have to pay a so-called “variable levy” from 2027. As a result of this levy, 74 cents per member will in future flow to the German Gymnastics Federation each year, which is a total of around 275,000 euros. Money that the STB as an association had previously transferred to the DTB headquarters in Frankfurt.
The possible misconduct of responsible trainers and individual officials has not only damaged the image of the associations. It also has painful financial consequences.
