Status: 04.12.2021 3:32 p.m.
Thomas Weikert is the new President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation. At the general assembly of the DOSB in Weimar, he clearly prevailed against Claudia Bokel.
Thomas Weikert
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Thomas Weikert is the new President of the crisis-ridden German Olympic Sports Confederation.
With 361 to 56 votes, the 60-year-old lawyer clearly prevailed against the German fencing president Claudia Bokel at the DOSB general meeting on Saturday in Weimar. Former table tennis world president Weikert succeeds Alfons Hörmann at the head of the sport’s umbrella organization with around 27 million members and 90,000 clubs.
“I’m a bit overwhelmed. Now we’ll tackle it together and then we’ll make progress. Thanks also to Claudia, I don’t want to forego your expertise,” said Weikert after his election.
Wear a suit, think in a leotard
“The dark suit is often wrongly used as an alienation of the sports officials from the grassroots. I want to change that,” said Weikert during his introductory speech. He wanted to be the captain of a strong team with transparency, openness and lots of right decisions: “Give me and us the chance to prove that we often wear suits, but always think of jerseys.”
The family lawyer from Limburg an der Lahn in Hesse is considered to be a man of balance who seeks “amicable solutions” and is therefore possibly the ideal candidate for the top job. “That’s my style, it was like that in the German Table Tennis Association, that’s how it was in the ITTF, but also in other areas of life,” said Weikert. In 2018 he was already in discussion as DOSB boss when a number of leading associations rehearsed the uprising against Hörmann and complained about his tone and behavior.
The controversial Hörmann had drawn the consequences of the affair about an anonymous employee letter and after eight years in office had renounced a candidacy. In the letter, he and the DOSB leadership were accused of having created a “culture of fear” in the House of Sports in Frankfurt / Main.
The crisis was exacerbated by threatening letters from lawyers on behalf of him and the chief executive Veronika Rücker to the ex-board member Karin Fehres. She was suspected of being the author of the anonymous letter and threatened with criminal charges and civil charges. Fehres firmly denied the allegations.
Hörmann not present in Weimar
The economic manager Hörmann had not traveled to Weimar on medical advice because of the consequences of a corona infection, but in an interview with the “Allgäuer Zeitung” (Saturday) he continued to stoke his theory that he had become a victim of an intrigue. Extensive evidence would prove “that this is a very deliberate overthrow at the entire top of the DOSB,” he said.
As the honorary number one in the DOSB, Weikert will have his hands full. Creating peace, calm and trust in the umbrella organization should come first. What is needed are clever corona management, the repair of the relationship with the International Olympic Committee, corrections to the elite sports system – also in dialogue with the new federal government about the sports topics set out in the coalition agreement.
“That is encouraging at first,” said Weikert about the ideas of the traffic light coalition of the SPD, FDP and the Greens, but emphasized: “It is clear that politics must not act unilaterally and vice versa, the DOSB must not. You have to develop it together.” Despite the mountain of challenges, he goes to work without fear. “I have respect, yes,” he said. But after all, you don’t have to “start from scratch.”
Claudia Bokel, President of the German Fencing Association since 2016, decided not to be present in Weimar and only allowed herself to be connected digitally. The decision not to present herself personally, to forego any election campaign, to first publicly promise Weikert support and then to run for a candidate, must have cost the former epee world champion a lot of sympathy and votes.
Source: sportschau.de