Some wanted to tear down the regatta course after the 1972 Olympic Games. The Munich rowing society fought for it to stay. And actually she’s still fighting – right now, for the Olympic anniversary.
It would not have been missing much, and the enthusiastic water sports enthusiasts could have saved themselves the trouble of starting a rowing club. The regatta course created in 1972 with boathouses and grandstands in Oberschleißheim threatened to remain an intermezzo; a short interlude on the occasion of the Summer Olympics in Munich. There were considerations to tear it down after the big event. A water surface would have remained for fun and games. But not a sports facility. But some objected. When 29 friends of rowing launched the rowing society in the Haus des Sports in Munich on March 29, 1972, it should be a sign that great rowing continues to have a home in Munich.
50 years later, as chairman of the club, Willi Bock is passionate about rowing on the former Olympic course. Basically, the association is still fighting today for the facility, which has been neglected for a long time to be maintained. Neither the city of Munich, the Free State nor the federal government felt or felt responsible. Especially not as individual actors. In the anniversary year of 2022, 65-year-old Willi Bock will have to put his foot down more than ever to ensure that the system is preserved.
He seems made for it. He and his wife are rowing in twos. He has headed the club for three years and has since shown sporting ambition in the political arena when it is asked. He was a journalist for Evening News and knows how to take politicians right. “We have the hope that it will continue,” says Bock.
The facility, which is now a listed building, is already being gently spruced up for the anniversary year. The paved circular path has been renewed. The ailing wooden walkways will be replaced by April. But in the opinion of the rowers, that shouldn’t have been it. That’s why they want to advertise on their own behalf. The club’s anniversary party will take place on July 16, at which, according to Bock, it will also be celebrated “that we have succeeded in maintaining the facility”. On the following weekend, July 23rd and 24th, the rowing society organizes Bavarian championships with 54 participating clubs. On August 11th, the European Championships will also take place on the regatta course, a big sports festival for professional and amateur athletes to commemorate the 1972 Olympics.
The active members of the rowing society will then present their sport on the regatta lake and on the Olympic lake with rowing ergometers and their boats. They do this in close collaboration with the canoe clubs and others, and they do it confidently. “Today we are the most successful club on the regatta course,” says Bock. The has 450 members. Youth work is particularly successful.
In the corona pandemic, rowing was not possible at times. In the summer of 2021, they started gently again, says Bock, and were almost overrun. There are 42 new members among the adults alone. “The nice thing about rowing,” says Bock, “is that it goes on into old age.”