“Bitter demise of our fleet”: The German Rowing Association complains about a debacle at the home European Championships in Munich. Figurehead Oliver Zeidler is also disappointed in one, but renews his harsh criticism of the association.
The rower Oliver Zeidler was exhausted on Sunday afternoon (08/14/2022), he was dizzy and had a headache, he reported. And he was still disappointed after fourth place in the singles final on the home track in Munich-Oberschleißheim, actually he wanted to win “gold at home” at the European Championships. But all this did not prevent him from renewing his criticism of the German Rowing Association (DRV) and amplifying it harshly.
Zeidler criticizes sports director Mario Woldt
“If, after my criticism of the professionalism in competitive rowing, you simply say that you don’t know what you’re talking about, then that’s also an indication that on the one hand the German sports director really has little idea about sport, and on the other hand our two management positions in the actually have no idea what’s going on at our bases.”said Zeidler after missing the medal in one.
Even before the European Championships in Munich, he had criticized the sports director Mario Woldt in the sports show, among other things, that the DRV “by zip code” be nominated. “If you live in Hamburg because that’s where the base for us scullers is, then you definitely have better chances than if you live in Frankfurt, for example.”he said.
Woldt wants to talk to Zeidler
Woldt replied: “We don’t nominate by zip code. We nominate by merit, we nominate by ability to fit in team boats.” Basically he found: “Criticism is certainly good. We have to talk about it, we want to talk about it. But here during the European Championships, that’s not the time.”
National coach Brigitte Bielig also announced “individual talks” with Zeidler. In fact, the 26-year-old could not necessarily count on being asked for an interview during the big event.
Nevertheless, he sees a communication problem: “The reactions of our national coach and our sports director to simply say ‘no’ to all of my arguments is simply not dealing with the criticism that I have expressed.” From this you can see “that one is not prepared to make any changes”.
Rowing debacle: Germany eight and Zeidler miss medals
Internationally, Zeidler is currently one of the few German figureheads. His fourth place hits the DRV hard, similar to that of the former flagship boat Germany eight. National coach Uwe Bender found that his young eights team “tuition paid” have.
A lot has been tried and I find it simply negligent to go to a home European Championship and try so many things. You don’t need to look at the individual boat classes, you can generalize.
Overall, there were only three medals in the former German parade discipline at the European Championships in Munich – two of them won para-athletes, bronze by 20-year-old Alexandra Föster (Meschede) was the only medal in an Olympic boat class. The fact that the team had to start with a decimated fleet due to several corona cases was also not a good explanation.
Sports show expert Ocik: “Biggest disappointment for umpteen years in rowing”
Sports show expert Hannes Ocik, two-time Olympic silver medalist, summed up relentlessly: “The downward spiral since 2012 continues and the snuggle course must finally end. And it must be clear that this was simply the biggest disappointment in rowing for tens of years.”
DRV President Petri wants changes
DRV President Moritz Petri recognized this: “It’s a bitter downfall for our fleet at a home European Championship. There’s nothing nice about it.”, he said. “In parts” he finds Zeidler’s criticism justified: “What rowing Germany needs now is a lot of courage. Courage to question yourself. What do we actually have to change in our structures? In our training?”
Yes, he wants to change the training structure, just swap heads, but he doesn’t want to: “For me, this is just the plaster on a small wound and in the end it may not solve our core problem.” Ocik, on the other hand, thinks: “We also have to question the coaches, not too much has changed in recent years.”
Föster also offers cautious criticism
Only Alexandra Föster caused happy faces in the rowing association of the Olympic boats, at least for a short time rowing Germany cheered on Sunday. Five weeks ago she surprisingly won the World Cup finals in Lucerne, followed by the U23 World Championships and now bronze at the European Championships thanks to a furious final sprint in one.
But she also voiced very cautious criticism of the situation in German rowing. “I don’t want to presume to criticize any structures because I’m not deep enough in it either.”said Föster on Sunday: “But I think it’s obvious that something is going wrong.”