At the first World Championships in Athletics in the USA, the German team mostly made negative headlines. The association announced a “relentless analysis” of the disappointing performance. Almost only other nations were responsible for the highlights – above all the hosts. The result of the ten days of sport in Eugene, Oregon.
“Athletes from all over the world shine in Eugene” – the organizers of the first World Championships in Athletics in the USA captioned their provisional World Championship balance sheet with this sentence. And thus missed reality by a long way: With only two medals – the gold on the final day of long jumper Malaika Mihambo and the bronze of the 4×100 meter women’s relay – the German team won fewer than ever in the 39-year-old History of World Athletics Championships.
In Paris 2003, the previous low, there were four (one silver, three bronze). German athletics is deep in crisis. This statement cannot be dismissed out of hand after only three medals were won at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year.
DLV President Kessing sees a “fundamental problem”
Instead of delivering strong sporting performances overseas as hoped with a team of almost 80 in Eugene and thus advertising and anticipating the home European Championships in Munich (15th to 21st August), after a total of only seven top eight Placements of the World Cup athletes of the German Athletics Association (DLV), which are decisive for the allocation of federal funding, one thing above all: frustration.
Those responsible do not hold back when criticizing the athletes either: The DLV CEO Idriss Gonschinska announced a “relentless analysis”. President Jürgen Kessing spoke of a “fundamental problem” that needs to be solved. There is nothing nice to say. And head national coach Annett Stein said in the sports show: “We are not satisfied, we have to criticize.”
Munich is the highlight of the season for many
It is not entirely clear how much self-criticism there is in her words. In any case, Stein rejects public criticism towards the DLV that in the year of the home EM in communication with the athletes the World Cup was not clearly named as the highlight of the season: “We wanted to achieve our best performance at two summits.” We have also prepared very well for this. The comparison with the world leaders is the actual goal. “Next time we will do better.”
However, a number of German World Cup participants were open about their own priorities during the World Cup. High jumper Mateusz Przybylko, for example, spoke of the “World Cup as an intermediate stage” after his failed final: “I’m more looking forward to Munich.” And for Mihambo, too, the EM is the “secret highlight” of the season. National coach Stein even shows understanding for such statements from the DLV team when she says in the sports show: “The athletes want to be visible in their country.”
DLV issues two-digit number of medals as EM goal
Now it is up to the German team to follow their words with deeds, in other words: to be successful in sport at least at the European Championships, even if that would not put their performance at the World Cup into perspective. DLV President Kessing hopes for a double-digit number of medals for the competitions in Munich. Germany won 19 medals at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin.
In order for this to work again, all athletes really have to be in top form in Munich. This also includes those who were affected or injured by a coronavirus infection before the World Cup. The lack of top performers like Johannes Vetter and Christin Hussong (javelin), Carolin Schäfer (heptathlon) or Jonathan Hilbert (walking) certainly contributed to the bad DLV balance sheet in Eugene, but cannot be the main reason for it.
Mood rarely boiled over at Hayward Field
Back to Eugene, the first US track and field championships were also the first provincial world championships. More than 1,700 World Cup athletes from 179 nations were supposed to advertise their sport in the traditional “Tracktown” of the United States with its just under 180,000 inhabitants – but it remains to be seen whether this has been successful. The Hayward Field stadium was rarely completely filled with 30,000 spectators, and the great atmosphere was even rarer there.
World Cup in the media German “night shadow”
The problem for the public perception of the World Championships in Germany was that most of the 49 decisions about gold, silver and bronze took place in the middle of the night of our time. Although ARD and ZDF broadcast live between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., the majority of people will only have been informed about the sporting events in Eugene on radio, television or the Internet in the morning. Want to cheer for the medals live? Unfortunately largely non-existent!
Three world records – and a strong US team
There was actually a lot to see and marvel at – even if mostly not from German athletes. Sporting highlights were the three world records: Sydney McLaughlin from the USA was the first woman to stay under 51 seconds over 400 m hurdles in 50.68 seconds, Nigerian Tobi Amusan amazed over 100 m hurdles with a fabulous 12.12 seconds and pole vaulter Armand Duplantis from Sweden spectacularly increased his world record to 6.21 m. The surprising two performances by Allyson Felix, the most successful World Cup athlete of all time, are undoubtedly among the highlights. There were also plenty of world championship and national records as well as world bests for the year.
The US team was furious in Eugene: With 33 medals (13 gold/9 silver/11 bronze), they won the most medals in the history of the World Cup. Ethiopia, Jamaica and Kenya follow with ten medals each.
Bankruptcies, bad luck and breakdowns
From the German team, the smaller and larger dramas will probably be remembered: Discus thrower Kristin Pudenz and javelin thrower Julian Weber missed the hoped-for medals in the final. The successful Konstanze Klosterhalfen over 5,000 m and Gesa Krause over 3,000 m obstacles clearly lagged behind, but were also self-critical afterwards. Lea Meyer fell into the moat in the obstacle course. Heptathlete Sophie Weißenberg and javelin thrower Andreas Hofmann made bitter failed attempts. And walker Carl Dohmann finished last after 35 km – 22 minutes behind the world champion.
Pleasing performances such as that of the two pole vaulters Ole Zernikel (5th place) and Jacqueline Otchere (10th place) or decathlete Leo Neugebauer (10th place) are almost forgotten in this balance sheet, but of course they should also be mentioned.
Former top stars worry about German athletics
The “Embarrassing World Cup of German athletes” (“Image”) did not leave former DLV top stars cold either. Whether long jump Olympic champion Heike Drechsler, high jump Olympic champion Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth or decathlete Christian Schenk: they were all embarrassed in interviews – and also directed their criticism at the DLV. World association president Sebastian Coe also expects a thorough analysis of the German association.
Nasse-Meyfarth criticized the size of the German team in the “Welt am Sonntag”. Among the almost 80 athletes there were some who were not at the level of the World Championships: “You don’t do such athletes any favors by starting on this big stage. Experiences of failure are not only depressing, but can also end a career before she started.”
Only a little time until the next challenges
After the World Cup – because of the Corona-related circumstances – not only immediately before the European Championships in Munich, but also only a year before the next World Championships in Athletics in Budapest. And the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris are only two years away.
Everyone in the German Athletics Association would do well to listen carefully to the long jumper Malaika Mihambo in the upcoming analyses. She delivered in Eugene at the right moment, was successful – and was still dissatisfied afterwards because no top performance had come out: “Everyone who knows me knows that I like to do my best.”