It is probably no coincidence that the presidential election, which is due this weekend, is already formally different from what is usual for important German sports organizations. Traditionally, it is part of their traditional understanding of balancing out a candidate in the back room and letting them nod off on election day. But when saber fencer Max Hartung resigns as (founding) president of the “Athleten Deutschland” association after five years, it is still unclear who will succeed him.
There are no fewer than three candidates – beach volleyball player Karla Borger, wheelchair basketball player Mareike Miller and water polo player Tobias Preuß – so the approximately 1400 members of the sports council actually have a choice of who should represent them in the future. This is not only much more democratic than the usual procedure, but also fits much better with the core idea of sport: competition.
How desirable it would be to experience a similar constellation at the presidential election of the German Football Association (DFB) in March and the election convention of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) in December. After all, with the latter, it currently looks as if there will be a real election, in which at least the table tennis functionary Thomas Weikert and the North Rhine-Westphalian state sports association chief Stefan Klett will compete.
One should of course not glorify this fact. There are also internal disputes among the athletes and a tough battle for majorities. But the choice is an example of the fact that they have a different culture – and one that is good for German sport.
Sometimes it even seems as if the athlete representatives are doing the work that the umbrella association has to do
Five years ago, the German athletes around Fechter Hartung began to line up independently of organized sport – against massive resistance. One of the basic evils of sport is that the athletes are far too rarely allowed to have a serious say. That is why this step was very important. And at the same time it was astonishing how the position of the athletes and thus the statics in German sports policy has developed in these five years.
The athletes have long been one of the most influential voices on the scene. They have not only managed to position themselves with a view to their own interests, but generally as an alternative to the established structures. They had the courage to harshly criticize the system and presented a different approach to many topics, with which they drive the DOSB and the affiliated associations in front of them.
Sometimes it even seems as if the athletes’ representatives are doing the work that the umbrella association has to do: from the discussions about an independent “Safe Sport Center” that victims of sexual violence can address to support for Belarusian athletes who to rebel against the dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In addition, the impression is also given that she is driving a real passion in the sport-political debate. Something like this can help to attract a new generation of athletes to important topics.
It was certainly not inconvenient for the athletes that the DOSB left a great vacuum on many topics into which they could break. And also that the relationship between the current DOSB leadership and many representatives of political operations is so difficult that they were happy to have alternative contacts.
But the statics in sport are now shifting again. Soon there will be a new sports minister and a new DOSB president, who – regardless of the specific occupation – it is unclear how strong he will be. Debates have been going on for a long time to decouple top-class sport and popular sport, which were united under the DOSB umbrella in 2006, from one another. The chances for the athletes to maintain their influence are there. It remains to be seen whether they will succeed in this as they have in the past five years.