The World Championships in Athletics, without a medal from a German perspective, has once again brought a debate into focus: Does performance still have a value in society? “Well, I think that’s a debate that’s being conducted in an incredibly sweeping manner,” criticizes Giessen sports sociologist Michael Mutz.
“Then you have to honestly say that this conclusion from an athletics world championship to the general willingness to perform in Germany is pretty far-fetched. Because no one could say exactly how this is supposed to work together.”
Nevertheless: Thomas Röhler, who won the Rio 2016 Olympic javelin throw, believes that without a willingness to perform, one does not get very far in society:
“In the end, it’s about performing. Whether it’s in business, in life, on the soccer field or in sports, you have to perform. I think it’s morally very nice when everyone loves each other on the pitch and in the end everyone goes home happy – that’s wonderful. But I think that sport is also about winning,” said Röhler a few years ago in the Deutschlandfunk sports talk.
“I loved it when measured and I cried too when I was only fourth. But I understood that and it helped me a lot to correctly assess and respect performance. If everyone goes home as winners in the end, I see that as dangerous.”
School sport, mass sport and elite sport are mixed up in the discussion
But that is exactly what many current debates are about: measuring less nominal performance than conveying the joy and motivation in sport. The reform of the national youth games that was decided this year is also based on this. Critics also see this as a sign of a decline in performance thinking in society.
“This is really a mock debate going on right now. And the high point of this mock debate is when the national youth games are used as an example that performance no longer has any value in our society,” says Torsten Burmester, CEO of the DOSB, very recently in the sports talk:
“It’s about changes in third and fourth grade from competition to competition. So if that has an impact on our society’s willingness to perform, then Germany has come a long way.”
So Burmester calls for a separation of society, school sport and top-class sport. Sports sociologist Michael Mutz also sees it this way:
“I think we mustn’t mix up the levels. I think we need a strategy in popular sport, in school sport, in children’s and young people’s sport that gets many children and young people into sports clubs and keeps them there for a long time and, if possible, encourages them to play sports for life. And I don’t think that can be done with an abbreviated approach that only aims at performance and success.”
Busemann: “Sport no longer has any value in Germany”
Frank Busemann, Olympic decathlon silver medalist and TV expert for years, believes that finding talent should start at school. The appreciation for sports professionals and trainers in Germany continues to decrease, says the former decathlete in the ARD morning show:
“Sport no longer has any value in Germany. It’s completely different in the USA, there you’re the super hero as an athlete and here you’re the nerd who somehow wants to spend his free time.”
“I think that top-class sport is generally held in very, very high esteem in society,” replies sports sociologist Mutz from Gießen: “I think people also like to be inspired when they follow major sporting events in the media, for example. Well, I think we are very willing to continue to support top-class sport.”
“As youth studies make clear, it is not the case that our young people today differ from older generations in terms of the will to achieve goals or something similar,” adds sports psychologist Ralf Brand from the University of Potsdam.
Sport in competition with other leisure activities
What has changed, however, are the environmental conditions under which talents develop. Young people today have a much larger selection of leisure and activity options. In this competition, sports clubs would have to assert themselves anew, according to Brand:
“My plea would be very simple: when it comes to winning talent for competitive sport, the quality of training must be improved across the board, at the roots and at the base. And from my point of view there is a great deal of untapped potential: Namely, what young, qualified people, for example sports students, could achieve at the grassroots level by means of at least decent remuneration for their work.”
Chances of success and security guarantees are becoming more and more important
Showing performance and being successful is also associated with positive emotions – especially in sports, says former javelin thrower Steffi Nerius on WDR:
“These are emotions in competitive sports that you will never find again at work. Well, I cried so much with joy because it’s so great to do such a competitive sport. But that’s now such a consideration: Yes, what do I get out of it? – No, I don’t earn that much money. And then it gets difficult.”
The question of earnings is related to another change in society, according to sports psychologist Ralf Brand:
“In turn, we know from youth studies that the need for security is greater among many young people today than it was in previous generations. That means: How can security be created so that athletes actually see a perspective for themselves in competitive sports in the medium term – all by themselves in terms of livelihood?”
The need for security and good prospects of success – two parameters that German sport could work on for new talent.