In an extremely difficult sporting situation, Tobias Kirch will become the new sports director of the German Fencing Association from May. The DFeB announced this on Friday.
The 42-year-old replaces Christoph Kneip, who had temporarily headed the office since June 2022. Kneip will continue to be part of the sporting management team.
“German fencing is facing enormous challenges,” explained association president Claudia Bokel, “in addition to the qualification for the Olympic Games in Paris that is now beginning and the second round of the PotAS analysis, we also want to give new impetus to the youth sector and strengthen the basis.”
With a few exceptions, the once internationally leading German fencing sport has lost touch with the top. According to Bokel, the results recently shown at the U17 and U20 European and World Championships were “very sobering. In order to provide our athletes with optimal support on the way to Paris 2024 and to achieve a trend reversal from youngsters to the top in the medium term , will require tremendous effort and sweeping changes across the association.”
Kirch had been a competitive sports consultant at the DFeB since February 2023 and before that he worked as a junior competitive sports consultant in the competitive sports division of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). He originally comes from table tennis and worked as a national trainer and senior state trainer at the federal bases in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, among others.