Mismand, power games, suffering athletes: The Olympic Association of Modern Pent -Keremists prevails chaotic conditions. The German Olympic Sports Confederation does nothing as a umbrella organization – and reaps shaking your head.
Rebecca Langrehr can hardly hide her bitterness with a view to the nightmare of the past few months. “All of this has done a lot of suffering, physically and mentally“, says one of Germany’s best modern pent -up teams:”I had thought of quitting very often because it simply didn’t make any sense for me.“Ultimately, her love for her sport prevailed.
However, the chaos in its Olympic Association (Read the latest developments here), the German Association for Modern Pentathlon (DVMF), ensured that Langrehr wants to start the USA in the future. Can Olympic top associations in Germany switch and act practically as they want? Also and especially at the expense of athletes? Of all things, the umbrella organization, the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB), is now surprisingly transmitted by the answer: Yes!
DOSB does not see any scope
“In Germany, the association autonomy already prevails according to the Basic Law. We have no right to go through, that has to regulate the modern pentathlon itself. We are completely neutral in this regard“, said DOSB President Thomas Weikert of Sportschau. Even if, as with the modern pent-ups, athletes are directly affected and disputed officials provide chaos, the DOSB is generally unable to actively and publicly defend its attitude and values.
“There will always be things that the DOSB considers bad or not fair“, said Weikert:”We cannot evaluate this and will not evaluate it either.“The new DOSB CEO Otto Fricke represented the same point of view at the press conference on the occasion of his presentation on September 11th. He does not believe that the DOSB”The federal crown“And raised the”Service ideas“of the umbrella organization:”When we are asked to help, we would be happy to do so with our expertise. But only then.“
CEO of the German Olympic Sports Association: Otto Fricke
Athletes feel “left alone”
The statements and views of the DOSB bosses not only produced incomprehension or even harsh criticism. Fricke’s statement that the DOSB supports at least on request cannot confirm some of those affected. They asked for help from the umbrella organization and not preserved, says Rebecca Langrehr, who is also athlete spokeswoman for the pentathlon. You and other athletes felt from the DOSB “left alone“.
Michael Dörr, the last properly elected president of the pentathlon association and now pushed out of office, became even clearer. “The DOSB likes to pull out and just says that ‘we have nothing to do with that’. For me, the DOSB is a water head that continues to grow. There are now 250 employees in the DOSB. I wonder what.“
Broad contradiction against stricts DOSB legal opinion
Indeed, the right to self -determination of associations and associations to regulate their internal affairs itself is anchored in Article 9 of the Basic Law. After the war, the approach was to exclude clubs and associations like during the Nazi rule. But even lawyers see no need for such a strict application for misconduct by clubs and associations with a view to the DOSB.
“If clear border lines are exceeded in the member associations, then I see the DOSB capable and also in the obligation to work on the fact that grievances can be parked in the associations concerned“, says the Cologne sports law professor Jan F. Orth:”The DOSB not only has the right, but also the obligation.“The associations involved are finally members of the DOSB who voluntarily joined him.
Objection from politics
In the preamble of the DOSB statute, for example: “The focus is on athletes at all levels of the structures and tasks of the DOSB. This requires the effective advocacy of the athletes.“DOSB President Weikert, at the profession of family law, replied: The preamble let themselves be”no rights derive“.
The logo of the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB).
Influent sports politicians also see it differently. “The DOSB as a umbrella organization should be true to take the associations a little more intensely in the future, to communicate more strongly and also question things“said Stephan Mayer, spokesman for sports policy of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
Too much power that Top associations?
Experienced association officials from German sport suggest that the strict attitude of the DOSB could also have very pragmatic background. Wolfgang Maennig, for example, Professor of Sports Economics, Rowing Olympic Champions from 1988 and honorary chairman of the German Rowing Association (DRV), refers to the great power of the top associations that combine most votes within the DOSB. The DOSB is obviously difficult for interference in association affairs, which is why it is also difficult, “If he has to be afraid that he will fall on his feet at the next election.“
With regard to the most important project of the DOSB, a German Olympic acquisition by far, the DOSB can hardly afford arguments with its important competitive sports associations. Especially since this is networked with each other via a lobby group led by Andreas Michelmann, the President of the German Handball Association (DHB).
Hörmann and Bach were more offensive
In Weikert’s predecessors on the post of the DOSB president, the influencing of the member associations were not uncommon. Founding President Thomas Bach, in office from 2006 until his election as the boss of the International Olympic Committee in 2013, was considered the grand master of back room policy. Keeping the Olympic top associations in line with the help of his board boss Michael Vesper was a central request for him with a view to his international ambitions.
Bach’s successor Alfons Hörmann (2013 to 2021) even emerged from the back rooms. In the restructuring of the German ice skating community and the discontinuation of the DESG sports director Günter Schumacher, for example, the umbrella organization under Hörmann’s leadership even played an active role after the winter games in Sochi.
The main reason at the time was not even chaos in the bandage, but simply the continuing unsuccessful. The new board boss Fricke admitted that there was such interference in DOSB past. He will try, he emphasized, “not to make such mistakes“.