With seven wins in seven qualifying games, the German volleyball players secured their Olympic tickets for Paris 2024. Star attacker Georg Grozer celebrates this emotionally in the Sportschau interview – and now has two big dreams.
One of the two dreams connects the family with his sport, the other is a very big and ambitious one on the volleyball field: In an interview with Sportschau, Georg Grozer wishes to experience the Olympic Games together with his daughter Leana, who is currently in the Debuted for the German women’s national team at the age of 16.
And for the men’s team he is hoping for nothing less than Olympic medals in the French capital!
Hope for an Olympic medal
Grozer on what he wants to convey to his teammates before the big event next summer: “You just can’t be afraid of this tournament, you have to enjoy everything and take it all with you and get the best out of it. Sure, you also have to be mentally strong to process everything in a short time, but you just have to get the best out of it. My goals We’re not at the end of qualifying yet, but I hope we can win a medal.”
“Maybe Leana will make it into the squad”
About his unbroken motivation and a possible generational duet with Leana Grozer, who plays for Schwerin in the Bundesliga, he says: “It’s the love for this sport that has kept me involved for so long. The passion just won’t go away and that’s a good thing. Of course, I always wanted to make my children proud, they are 16 and 13, and the older one has now made her debut in the senior national team. You can dream: Maybe she will make it into the Olympic squad, hope dies last, I keep saying that.“
“For me as a grandpa it’s just crazy”
Grozer has to fight back tears when he talks about the moment when qualification was secured with the converted match point in the 3-0 win against Qatar: “It’s still hard to talk about it now, it brings tears to my eyes. It’s an indescribable feeling, I’m still trying to process it. For me, as an old hand and grandpa of the team, to experience it again is just crazy. We had the best teams in the world in the group and beat everyone – inside me there is chaos, happiness and a lot of emotions.”
To convey relaxedness and faith
The exceptional attacker describes his role in the team as follows: “I tried to tell the boys what we can actually do. Not many people believed that we could do it before. I have a slightly different mentality and give the boys a relaxed attitude – but also the belief that they can do anything can achieve if you never doubt it. Giving the boys that feeling on and off the field certainly helped a lot. But conversely, the boys also help me, as an old man, to keep persevering and to learn through their young perspective – that “It’s just a cool combination.”