Championship titles will be awarded in 18 sports at the finals. Most events take place in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. For the NRW region, the finals could be a test for something much bigger.
Düsseldorf’s Lord Mayor Stephan Keller also sees the finals with German championships in various sports as an opportunity with a view to a possible Olympic application for the Rhine-Ruhr region.
“The finals are a good opportunity to show that we are able to host major sporting events that don’t just take place in one city, but can be made successful in cooperation between the cities,” said the CDU politician in Duisburg. “I am fully behind the movement that is trying to align the Olympics with the Rhine and Ruhr. That would be a huge opportunity for NRW and for the Rhine-Ruhr region in particular.”
Stephan Keller (CDU, l), Mayor of Düsseldorf, and Sören Link (SPD), Mayor of Duisburg, take part in the press conference on the multi-sport event “The Finals”.
Starting next Thursday, 159 championship titles will be awarded over four days in 18 sports. Most events take place in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. There are two exceptions: Apart from the pole vault (Düsseldorf), the athletics decisions are made in Kassel. The swimmers compete in Berlin. ARD and ZDF broadcast the finals on linear television and in streams.
Earliest date would be 2036
Like Keller, Duisburg’s Lord Mayor Sören Link (SPD) also spoke out in favor of an Olympic bid. “We wouldn’t have to build Olympic stadiums out of the ground, we have the infrastructure,” said the 47-year-old.
The past Olympic campaigns in Germany failed due to the resistance and votes of the population in Munich and Hamburg. The earliest possibility for the next Summer Olympics to be held in Germany would be 2036. This date is disputed, however, since the Nazi Games took place in Berlin 100 years earlier.