Interview: “I have the feeling that one is left a little alone” – sport

SZ: Ms. Miller, a study by the German Sport University on behalf of Sporthilfe found that almost a third of top German athletes were recently not fully mentally present at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. You are the captain of the German national wheelchair basketball team, you lost in the game for third place against the USA in Tokyo and then said that the team didn’t seem mentally ready. How does that happen before such an important game?

Mareike Miller: There are of course many factors that play a role. We started the tournament very well, finished first in the group and also played a very good semi-final before breaking into the last six minutes. That is then perhaps one of the toughest challenges of all: to ignite the mood for the game for bronze, at the same time knowing that you weren’t that far away from the final. I already had the feeling that we had processed the defeat well, that everyone really wanted to win this last game. But it became clear in the first few minutes that we fought a lot with ourselves, with fatal mistakes in defense that we never made otherwise. I can’t explain that other than with the fact that we weren’t ready mentally.

It sounds like the biggest problem was that you and your teammates didn’t really realize before the last game that there might be a problem.

Perhaps this mood that I just described actually came about subliminally.

Would it have needed additional offers? Or did they exist and were not used?

We are faced with fundamental problems in Paralympic sport. One thing that we are currently working very hard on is the competitive sports staff: first and foremost, that more full-time trainers are trained. For a long time we only had one full-time coach in wheelchair basketball, the men. For the women there was a fee coach who is only paid for the time of the courses and tournaments. That can’t justify everything, but the promotion of the women’s area has happened bit by bit and not holistically over the years. Fortunately, we always had very committed athletes who got involved in many areas. In recent years, for example, women’s teams have repeatedly formed in the regional leagues through the initiative of athletes and coaches, in which female players were able to gain practical experience. But of course that is an additional challenge when you as an athlete have to create your own structures. Especially when measures by the national team are completely paused for a year due to the corona pandemic.

You haven’t seen each other for a year?

No, and of course that is a very long period of time that we missed to grow together as a team. You also benefit from this in the critical situations of a tournament. At the same time, it is difficult to say whether a full-time coach, who could have been more present in home training in this phase, or an additional athletic or mental coach would have given us the decisive advantage in this one game in the end. But there are all factors along the way that do make a difference.

That was a major point of criticism of the study: that only around two thirds of the athletes are satisfied with their coaches and, above all, there is a lack of individual training planning.

So far we have been happy when our freelance coaches are committed in their free time after the courses and continue to look after the team well. In this construct, however, a lot really depends on how much each player invests herself. For example, a year after I started wheelchair basketball, I went to the United States to study in college so that I could play the sport as a competitive sport. I’ve been playing in the Bundesliga almost continuously since 2014, and I also take advantage of the opportunities in the women’s teams in the regional league. And then there is the added challenge that after graduation there were hardly any opportunities to combine sport and work well.

There is no shortage of offers to support the athletes.

Under no circumstance. There are mentoring programs, there are Sporthilfe partners who welcome applications from athletes and want to use them for their skills. Since the Bundeswehr cannot set up the same funding programs here as in Olympic sport, because we cannot use the weapon to the same extent, there are other funding agencies, for example in the administration at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. But all of these things always had a catch for me.

For example?

First of all, where one can find good training conditions, there must also be a federal authority that offers a job. It then has to match your own résumé. So you have to constantly decide what to subordinate to whom. I finished my studies at 24, and now, at 31, I work in sales at News aktuell GmbH, a subsidiary of the German Press Agency in Hamburg, and I have normal distances between home, training and work. But these seven years, in which I have so far combined work and sport, have always been based on initiative. I tried out pretty much all the funding programs and also received quite intensive mentoring.

Then where did it hook?

For example, you are offered companies that like to hire competitive athletes – but only after their careers. This is problematic for many because they cannot finance themselves through sport alone or because they want to ensure a professional future while doing sport. Then I also lack the appreciation for the skills that many athletes bring with them. Unfortunately, we have very few jobs in Germany where part-time solutions are possible in addition to sports, in which one can advance early on and be encouraged. You have to make an awful lot of compromises – or you just need luck. In the past seven years I have managed to do a job that satisfies my superiors, but that was only possible because I clung to everything myself, to do my sport with sometimes unpaid vacation – which I now fortunately from the Promotion through sport can cushion. But in the end I have the feeling that one is left a little alone.

Where should one start to take stress off the athletes?

I believe that the structures – and that is how the athletes in the study see it – are not that bad. But the support would have to be much better and more targeted. Whether they are trainers, career advisors or mentors: It would have to be communicated much more proactively that one is being accompanied much more comprehensively and specifically on the path of the dual career.

The lack of social appreciation, also from the media and politics, was cited as an extreme obstacle. Do you see it similarly?

Definitely. First of all, you have to find an employer who supports such a dual model and also accepts that many athletes can only fully enter the profession a little later. The fact that this is just not the case may also mean that many tend to quit their careers a little earlier. In doing so, they sacrifice an enormous amount of time with friends and family in order to be able to compete in the world class. If, instead of appreciating the great achievements, you hear the saying: “You’re never there anyway” – then that leads to the fact that you think more often, earlier, faster about how long you are going to do the whole thing would like.

The structures in para-sport have improved massively worldwide in recent years. How do you see Germany positioned in comparison?

I believe that the existing structures provide a lot of know-how and a good basis with which to expand the whole thing. But I also see very clearly that the current structures are not optimal. From my point of view, the most problematic point is the coaching system. Just because there are more and more full-time coaching positions doesn’t mean that we have a lot of highly qualified coaches who can fill these structures. This also reflects the appreciation of a society: that enough trainers are trained, that they have appropriate career opportunities and are well paid, that people want to choose this career path at all.