Berlin – For the German Olympic spectators, it was one of the most emotional moments of the past Winter Games in South Korea. These four and a half minutes, in which Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot slid to the Olympic pair skating gold in Pyeongchang with a world record free skating. Your trainer Alexander König was on the edge of the gang, he had tears in his eyes. Almost four years later, the renowned coach, who in 1988 became GDR champion in pair skating with Peggy Schwarz and won the bronze medal at the European Championships in Prague, lost his job as national coach. He is only unofficially part of the German championships at the weekend in Neuss – on a voluntary basis.
The 55-year-old was quietly released from his position in October. To this day, König cannot understand this majority decision on the board of the German Ice Skating Union (DEU). “The official reason was that you no longer see any areas of responsibility for me,” said König. He had returned to Berlin two and a half years ago to help set up a pair skating center. “The fact that the DEU is now saying, after almost two years of pandemic, that I had not given the right impetus, that is very unsporting, what is happening on the part of our leadership,” says König.
Reinhard Ketterer is considering candidacy as DEU President
A statement that caused a perplexed shake of the head in DEU Vice President Reinhard Ketterer, who is responsible for competitive sports. “Pair skating is our best discipline in an international comparison. We still have a small lead over many international competitors in Europe, ”said Ketterer.
The long-time Berlin Federal Base Manager is so angry that he is considering running for the election of the new DEU President himself in the summer of 2022. Incumbent Dieter Hillebrand, who has been at the head of the association since 2006, will no longer stand for election.
For Ketterer, the resignation of the pensioner, who once worked in a leading position in the Munich police headquarters, is long overdue: “We have internally autocratic structures that are no longer up to date.”
Association quarrel superimposes sporting decisions
Structures that make it possible for the DEU to part ways with a national coach on the one hand without warning, but on the other hand Stefano Caruso, the honorary national trainer for the next generation of ice dancers, against whom the Berlin public prosecutor’s office in Berlin is investigating on the occasion of several reports on suspicion of mistreatment of wards leads, just kept busy, as if nothing had ever happened. The DEU has selected Caruso as assistant to the technical specialists for the championships in Neuss, so he assesses the technical level of the master class ice dance – rhythm dance in an official capacity.
Hillebrand, who does not want to comment on the separation from König, had organized his majority for the controversial personnel decision against the national coach pair skating not only against Ketterer, but also against the new sports director Claudia Pfeifer. Ketterer, 73, only wants to run for the election if he succeeds in gathering a young management team around him: “One old man at the top is enough.”
The association dispute is superimposed on the sporting decisions in the Neuss ice rink – not entirely without good reason. Because when it comes to qualifying for the Olympics, almost all the die has been cast.
The Berlin pair skaters Minerva Hase and Nolan Seegert fulfilled the required norm for Beijing in autumn, as did the German ice dance masters Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck from Dortmund and single skater Nicole Schott from Oberstdorf.
However, Hase / Seegert had long since left the Berlin location, where Alexander König had looked after them, for Sochi in order to receive new impulses there in the direction of the Olympics. The Berlin couple Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel do not compete in the German championships.
Berlin’s Paul Fentz is still hoping to participate in the Olympics
Therefore, only the sporting fate of Paul Fentz is still open. The three-time German champion from Berlin is definitely not allowed to start in the Olympic individual competition, but is still hoping to be part of the German team in the Olympic team competition.
The World Ice Skating Association ISU will not announce which nations have qualified for this still young Olympic discipline until next week.