The Swimming World Championships ended on Sunday in Doha, Qatar. The German Swimming Association (DSV) won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals. This is the best German World Cup result since 2009.
One of the medal winners is Lukas Märtens, who won bronze in the 400-meter freestyle. “That makes me very positive for the season,” said Märtens in the Deutschlandfunk sports talk. And that despite the fact that he has only been back in full training for two months after a long illness at the end of last year. “The results are great. I couldn’t have dreamed of that. That’s why I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”
DSV Vice President “more than satisfied”
“We are more than satisfied with the entire two weeks,” said DSV Vice President Kai Morgenroth. The World Cup is only a stopover on the way to the Olympic Games in Paris in August, said Morgenroth, but “at this point in February we are at a very high level with the times that our pool swimmers have shown. That’s true for us “They’re all quite optimistic.” From a German perspective, it was “a very, very important World Championship because we showed where we are at the moment with the times, with records, with best times and that makes us all very optimistic.”
World Cup in Germany: “Feelers are being put out”
The next swimming world championships will now take place in Singapore, Budapest and Beijing. In 1978, Germany hosted the World Swimming Championships for the first and only time. Morgenroth would like to change that: “The feelers are being put out. That was also my mission here,” he said. “In the context of Germany’s possible bid for the Olympics, it is certainly important to bring a world championship in one of the core sports to Germany at some point in the 1930s.”
The world swimming association World Aquatics also supports this, said Morgenroth. Even independently of the Olympics, there would be a desire to hold a World Swimming Championships in Germany. “The signals from politics are pointing in a positive direction, even if it will take a few more years.”
“The swimming association doesn’t have a single euro for it”
The sticking point, however, is money. However, the swimming association has financial problems. “It doesn’t work without state funding. We’re talking about a volume of 140, 150 million euros that it takes to hold the World Championships. Of course, a lot comes back, but the German Swimming Association doesn’t have a single euro for it. Even if we did a million “We wouldn’t be able to host a World Cup. Ultimately, we need a signal from politicians that this is what we want.”
Now the Olympic Games are coming up in August. “The excitement is still low,” said Märtens. “But that will build up.” “I’m already planning something for Paris,” he said. He even skips the opening ceremony because the first competition is scheduled for the next day. “I’m there to win a medal and not to see the city.”