2023-12-22 01:00:00
“Such a title for a trainer!” Wolfgang Heinig is still happy about the award as “Master of Sports” (2003)
The sun of Africa instead of cold, wet weather at home. From November 20th to mid-December, Wolfgang Heinig and his small training group were in East Africa for three weeks; in Iten, Kenya, they trained at 2,400 meters for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The 72-year-old finished his studies at the German University of Physical Culture and Sport (DHfK) in 1975 and then celebrated great successes with his future wife Katrin Dörre, whom he led to Olympic bronze in the marathon at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. Four years later in Barcelona, fifth place followed and fourth place again in Atlanta in 1996. In addition, there are over a dozen victories in the world’s most important races over 42.195 kilometers.
Wolfgang Heinig was employed at the DHfK sports club until the “reunification”, working as a national coach from 1990 to 2004 and later again from 2013 to 2016, primarily for the long-distance sector. Long since retired, he still goes in and out of the federal and state base in Frankfurt-Niederrad and regularly drives the 75 kilometers from his “post-reunification home” of Erbach in the Odenwald to the Main metropolis. “I turned my hobby into a profession, it’s been that way for almost 50 years now,” says the Torgau native, watching Gesa Felicitas Krause’s warm-up program out of the corner of his eye. The 2016 and 2018 European champion in the 3,000 meter steeplechase and the 2015 and 2019 World Cup bronze medalist in the same discipline is currently his most prominent athlete.
The 31-year-old belongs to the “Kenya group” like her obstacle colleagues Olivia Gürth (21) and Maruša Mišmaš-Zrimšek (29) from Slovenia, who came sixth at the World Championships in Budapest this summer. The crew is completed by long-distance athlete Lisa Oed (24). “We’re just a few Hanselen,” says Wolfgang Heinig, takes out his cell phone and uses a film to show what things are like in Iten. Hundreds of athletes simultaneously populate the unpaved, hilly paths made of brick-red sand, which quickly turn into muddy deserts when it rains. The “world capital of running” is home to everyone who already has an international reputation or who still wants to earn their sporting merits.
However, the experienced coach knows that the international competition alone cannot explain the “zero number” that the German Athletics Association (DLV) achieved at the Budapest World Championships in August. For the first time, not a single World Cup medal for a German team in this core sport; that was “a very poor performance.” »This downward trend has been announced for years. Even if everyone had been healthy, we would only have a handful of people left who could pull something off and win a medal. While the DLV world is still in order in the U 18 and U 20 youth divisions, things happen far too often after they graduate from school the transition is not. »Sport cannot offer enough security, sometimes not even guarantees for a single Olympic cycle over four years. It’s no wonder that our talented people decide against sport and in favor of their careers.«
Added to this is the home-made misery among the trainers. Not optimally trained in the long term, wages frozen for almost ten years and no payment in line with the performance principle – these multiple grievances must take revenge, says Wolfgang Heinig. This not only applies to his beloved athletics, but is a problem for all Olympic sports. He is concerned about the lack of focus on strong training groups in his association, where the best in the sub-disciplines of running, jumping and throwing push each other in daily training. Such constellations are more the exception than the rule. Conditions like those in the Netherlands, where the squads are concentrated at a national center in Papendal, just outside Arnhem, are out of the question. »Not only the Dutch, but also other small nations such as Switzerland and Slovenia have positioned themselves in a highly professional manner. On the other hand, people smile when the others look at us and ask: What are you actually doing?”
Underlying all of this is the lack of social recognition of sport and especially competitive sport. During the GDR era, when Wolfgang Heinig, after completing his studies, worked for five years until 1980 as a sports teacher at a school in the mornings and in the afternoons with nine to 14 year olds at a training center in Leipzig-Gohlis and in this way embodied popular sports, talent scouting and competitive sports in one person. “The coaching profession was a highly recognized state job.” The experienced strategist looks at his honorary certificate as “Master of Sports” with pride. »Such a title for a trainer! Here, on the other hand, after so many years I haven’t even received a badge of honor from the DLV, and actually nothing at all in recognition. If a year went well, there was a bottle of champagne at the end.
Nevertheless, Heinig remains motivated and wants to remain true to his credo in his “second coaching life” under changed conditions: not only send athletes to the start, but also with as many opportunities as possible. »If it were just based on team strength, we would be way ahead and probably second best after the USA. But top-class sport is based on different criteria,” says Heinig. He smiles when he talks about Olivia Gürth, whom he has looked after since September 2022: a young woman with great potential who, after graduating from high school and thanks to the Bundeswehr sports support group, can now “concentrate 100 percent on sport.” With positive consequences: In Budapest, the obstacle specialist ran straight into the World Cup final on her debut and broke the Olympic standard in the process.
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