To swim
And then came the shock: the abuse affair overshadowed EM
Other cases of abuse were reported to the swimming association. photo
© Oliver Weiken/dpa
In terms of sport, German athletes have a lot to celebrate at the European Championships in Rome. The publication of serious abuse allegations causes a “kink” in the team.
At the end of a sporty and atmospheric European Championship, which was overshadowed by the abuse affair in diving, open water swimmer Leonie Beck celebrated gold in her adopted country.
A little shaky on her feet, the 25-year-old trudged onto the beach at Lido di Ostia and smiled, pointing her index finger up. “European champion is something very special,” she said. German athletes were also happy about gold in pool swimming and jumping in Italy. In stark contrast to the sporting successes, the well-known allegations of abuse by the former world-class water jumper Jan Hempel against his former coach in the German team caused a shock.
“You could see that there was a kink in the team,” said the competitive sports director of the German Swimming Association (DSV) Christian Hansmann on Sunday. Psychological help was offered to the athletes.
Hempel makes allegations public
In a documentary by ARD, Hempel speaks about allegations of sexual abuse against his former coach Werner Langer, who has since died, about which he reported to the then national coach in 1997. The incumbent national water jump coach, Lutz Buschkow, is accused in the film of having known about the allegations at the time. The DSV released the 64-year-old in Rome, but also announced that the previous inspection of the files had not given any indication that Hempel’s allegations against Buschkow were correct.
After the documentation was published, further cases were reported to the DSV. “There are still cases every day. I can’t say how many,” said Hansmann.
Before the allegations became known, the power couple Isabel Gose and Lukas Märtens shaped the EM in the pool swimmers from a German point of view. They made sure that the pool aces, even without Florian Wellbrock, did something in top form that they hadn’t managed for ten years. There had not been two gold medals in individual races at a European Championship since 2012 and the times of Paul Biedermann and Britta Steffen. At that time there were even five individual gold medals.
Gose scooped a full set of medals at the Italian festival with a party atmosphere in the grandstands by the outdoor pool in the Foro Italico. Her friend Märtens was allowed to take the gold and silver with him to the shared apartment in Magdeburg. In total there were two gold, two silver and four bronze medals in the pool. Across divisions, DSV athletes won six gold, two silver and seven bronze.
The top performers, apart from the weakened Wellbrock, delivered. On the other hand, national coach Bernd Berkhahn was not satisfied with many swimmers from the second row who had specifically prepared for the European Championships – “definitely not”, as he emphasized.
Wind and waves mix up competition
Because Olympic champion Wellbrock gave up the open water races after his Covid 19 illness in July, the German team in the sea off Lido di Ostia lacked the best man. With her triumph over the Olympic ten kilometers, Beck nevertheless ensured that the national anthem was played at the award ceremony.
For the organizers, the races went differently than planned. At first, no competitions could take place for two days due to wind and high waves. On Saturday, the 25-kilometer race ended in chaos: the conditions deteriorated so rapidly in the afternoon that the competition was abandoned. For hours it was unclear how the race would be scored. Finally, the European association Len canceled it completely.
In diving, Tina Punzel was happy about two titles in synchronized diving from the three-meter board with Lena Hentschel and in mixed from the same height with Lou Massenberg. On Saturday, the sisters Elena and Christina Wassen gave themselves, their parents and their brothers a special family moment with bronze in tower synchronized diving. Even without record European champion Patrick Hausding, who ended his career, there were five medals for the German jumping team. However, it was not entirely convincing. Iris Schmidbauer celebrated gold at the EM premiere in high diving with spectacular jumps from a height of 20 meters.