Jörg Bügner takes over the newly created position of sports director at the German Athletics Association (DLV). The 54-year-old used to be a team coach for the German Swimming Association (DSV).
The sports scientist, who has a doctorate, will therefore have overall responsibility for competitive sports at the DLV in the future. The association announced this on Tuesday.
“We are very happy that we were able to get Jörg Bügner on board in the sporting field, an absolute expert on board who, with his managerial competence in the field of top-class sport, his networking in sports politics and his extensive experience in the field of sports science, is a welcome and necessary reinforcement of the DLV teams,” President Jürgen Kessing is quoted as saying in a press release.
Bügner had worked as sports director for the German Triathlon Union (DTU) until the end of January. The 54-year-old had previously worked as a team coach for the German Swimming Association (DSV) at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and as head of the “Olympic Winter Sports” department at the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).
DLV sports director should control “competitive sports structures”.
“Jörg Bügner is a proven expert who will successfully further develop the sporting area of the DLV with his in-depth knowledge, his experience from numerous leading positions in top-class sport in different sports and his pronounced leadership skills,” said CEO Idriss Gonschinska.
According to the DLV announcement, Bügner’s area of responsibility as sports director includes “overarching control of competitive sports structures in the sense of a management function”. He is also responsible for the promotion of competitive sports, the federal support system and personnel development in the sports sector.
The new strong man is supposed to relieve head coach Annett Stein administratively.
After its analysis of the historically poor 2022 World Cup in Eugene – with only one gold and one bronze – the DLV announced shortly before Christmas that it would create the position of sports director and want to fill it in the first quarter of the new year. The association wants to return to the top 5 internationally by the time of the 2028 Summer Olympics.