The German sport of tobogganing is Georg Hackl, but Georg Hackl is no longer the German sport of tobogganing. The winter sports legend has decided to continue his coaching career in Austria. Alexander Resch, board member of the Bobsleigh and Sled Association for Germany (BSD), described Hackl as “the face of tobogganing” and his departure as “huge loss“. Also because he now has to fear for German supremacy in the ice channel?
He did most of the work next to the toboggan run
2006 ended the “Hackl Schorsch” his active career, he was three times Olympic champion and ten times world champion, won seven EM-Title. Since 2020, the 55-year-old has been part of the “hall of fame of German sport“, his portrait is captioned with the words: “The Rodel Professor“.
Also a synonym for Hackl is the “tinkerer“.”We always work overtime. We tinker, we research, we try. There is much to do“- that’s his attitude towards work. And that’s an important reason why Germany has been ahead of the competition for decades.
Hackl always wanted to get the best out of his sled, sometimes even too much. In the WM In 1999 he suffered a huge disappointment when he fell on his home track at Königssee. “To put it simply: I wanted too much. I had new ideas in sled building. The material was very, very fast – but not manageable for me that day“, Hackl once said in an interview with the “Munich Mercury“.
Something like that never happened to him again, he learned from it and perfected his material – and gave himself and those who came after his career ended the decisive advantage.
Money obviously plays a big role
Most recently, he worked as a technical trainer and helped the German luge team to the perfect Olympic Games in Beijing. All four gold medals went to Germany. But why is a collaboration now ending that was so successful for Hackl both in his sporting days and as a trainer?
“We rocked the toboggan world together with my athletes, but now it’s time to go. The offer was too lucrative for me“, said Hackl on Tuesday (April 19, 2022) to the “Munich Mercury” and the “tz“. He previously emphasized, “no problem” with the BSD to have. Association sports director Thomas Schwaab explained: “Georg saw the change as the last chance to really develop professionally again.“
Germany alienated its figureheads
Above all, it is obviously an economic advancement for him. (Poor) pay is an issue that has been smoldering in German professional sport for a long time – with a few exceptions.
National bobsleigh coach René Spies recently called for better remuneration. “There is only one solution. The trainer salaries must be adjusted, on all posts in Germany“, he said and warned: “Of course, we try to keep the active people who leave with us. But that is not possible with the salary structure, the people concerned often prefer to stay with the authority, go to university or go somewhere else.“
In the case of Hackl, an icon has jumped off German winter sports. It is the second painful departure for Germany within a month. In March, figure skating Olympic champion Aljona Savchenko announced that she would be working as a trainer in the Netherlands in the future.