Former artistic gymnastics world champion Eberhard Gienger (70) was awarded the Golden Sports Pyramid for his life’s work by Deutsche Sporthilfe on Friday evening. At the ceremony in Berlin, the award winners Hans Wilhelm Gäb (2020) and Silvia Neid (2021), who had been canceled due to the pandemic, were also honored.
“Top athletes exemplify attitude. There is nothing more important than these values, which are exemplified by top athletes,” said Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) in a tribute to the awardees: “No one is more credible than these athletes who are role models for so many people, especially children and young people.”
Gienger was touched. “I’m particularly happy about this award because it comes from Deutsche Sporthilfe,” he said: “I’m one of the first recipients of Sporthilfe, I was already supported in 1968. I would like to thank Sporthilfe for that, as well as my many other companions.” Gienger was Germany’s flagship gymnast in the 1970s – 1974 world champion on horizontal bar, third at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and three times European champion.
After his active career, Gienger worked as a sports official in the German Gymnastics Federation, the NOK and the DOSB. From 2002 to 2021 he sat continuously for the CDU as a directly elected member of parliament from the Neckar-Zaber constituency and was spokesman for the parliamentary group in the sports committee.
The Golden Sports Pyramid has been awarded since 2000. Previous winners have included Steffi Graf, Franz Beckenbauer and Max Schmeling. The award comes with prize money of 25,000 euros, which the winners traditionally pass on to a charity project in the sport of their choice.