German sports badge: “Many young people don’t come either”

2024-08-21 05:29:29

A sharp reduction in sports bags, the reorganization of the Federal Youth Games, the lowest German Olympic medals there has been in a long time: German sport is doing badly. What does the reduced state of training do to our work mentality.

Last week I stood on a sports field in East Westphalia when it was 30 degrees Hidden. The place looked desolate, despite the excellent weather. Only a few volunteers in blue T-shirts, most of them over 80 years old, stood in groups across the field.

Every Monday evening you can come here to find out Sports badge adhere to. In four categories: endurance, strength, speed and coordination. In the end, if the work is right, you will be rewarded with certificates in gold, silver or bronze. For me it was the first sports test from the national youth games and swimming badge in my school days. First, I achieved silver in the power category (standing long jump), in terms of coordination I achieved bronze (sea jump) immediately, and after some practice gold. In terms of speed, I just missed the gold medal (swimming). I have problems with shot put, medicine ball, long jump and sling ball, but I make up for it with other exercises. Endurance work is still pending, for a day when muscle soreness has subsided a bit.

“Since Corona there has been a sharp decrease in people holding the sports badge. What we complain about is that many young people don’t come anymore. Sports badges are not available. It is good for body and health. There is a small Olympics, but there are still no people,” says Helmut, 83, who measures the distance of the throws, but also the height of the jumps and the speed of the sprints, for fifteen years. Now only 200 to 250 people are interested in the badge every year. That is still more than the neighboring villages, where everything is completely burnt. Helmut himself will receive the golden sports badge for the 47th time this year.

Are sports bags and competitions like the Federal Youth Games now a “humiliating” and “projected form of black pedagogy, carried out by the Nazis as the Reich Youth Competitions?” “taz”say last year? Or is its destruction the fall of the West and the simplicity of the youth, as is often said from other places? “We have lost the concept of performance in Germany in recent years,” noted former top swimmer Franziska van Almsick on WELT television.

Colleagues at “Bild”spoke softly on the recently concluded Olympics: “With thirty-three medals, the worst result since unification. The Olympics in Paris show that: German sports have big problems.” The magazine also quoted former rider Kristina Vogel, who agreed with the criticism of the newly reformed Federal Youth Games: “Prices will disappear at the Federal Youth Games. So why would I do it?” Just like skier Felix Neureuther, who demanded that mere sport should be something again.

So what about the sports prospects in 2024? After all, Germany is not only a country of poetry and ideas, but also a country of physical exercise, which is the basic building block for all meditation. Mens sana incorpore sano. Immanuel Kant was a passionate billiards player, Hannah Arendt proclaimed “Vita activa”, an active life. The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk even developed a philosophy of humanity as an animal. In his book “You have to change your life” he further teaches that people are always in vertical tension, i.e. they are always working to improve and surpass themselves in gymnastics: There is a picture of the game the ascetic exercise of humanity is the thought of thought. Kafka, Nietzsche and Rilke: “Homo repetitivus, homo artista, the man in training”.

A new sense of well-being

Despite the culture war raging over the sport, it still seems that there are differences today that go beyond the prevailing black and white thinking that says it runs off the spirit as either a Nazi survivor or its relegation as a phenomenon of corruption. . Austrian actress, satirist and writer Stefanie Sargnagel, for example, angered people a few years ago with statements like “Sports is too right-wing for me.” Today he appears on Instagram with a fitness glow and has replaced the jungle nights of his youth with a new hobby of weight lifting.

A look at other fashion markets from the recent past shows that the sport is currently experiencing a remarkable renaissance there as well. Best-selling books such as Caroline Wahl’s “22 Lanes”, Leif Randt’s “Allegro Pastel” and Miranda July’s “On All Fours” promote physical exercise in the form of swimming, badminton and the gym. Former world-class tennis player Andrea Petković published her second book, “Time to Get Out,” about life on and off the court in the spring.

Bones are also a frequent presence in movies: in “Sellers,” Gen Z star Zendaya plays an obsessive tennis coach. The Netflix documentary “Simone Biles: Like a Phoenician from the Ashes” follows the iconic American athlete on her way from dropping out of the 2022 Olympics due to mental health issues to winning the gold medal in 2024. Taylor Swift is also a symbol because it is I gave him “Eras” travel staff for over three hours every day. Shirin David’s fitness anthem “Belly Legs Po” also topped the charts last week.

What has changed is mostly the goal for which one is striving. While few people may be interested in exercise today, word has spread about the importance of exercise for overall well-being. Randt’s heroine, for example, plays badminton to increase her health awareness. He only sends important messages after he has exhausted himself in a game and thus reduces his stress level to a comfortable level.

July’s first character train in the gym for the perfect bottom in order to be lured into bed, which hopefully will lead to a more fulfilling sex life. Wahl’s protagonist swims 22 laps in an outdoor pool every day to escape the chaos that awaits him at home with his alcoholic mother. Sport, these heroes know, is not about trauma, but about overcoming it. If you do it right.

Marie Louise Goldman studied philosophy and German literature and received his doctorate from New York University. In WELT magazine “Cultural Battle to Go” he lends himself to contemporary explosives. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.