Stephan Mayer (CSU) is Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister of the Interior, Building and Home Affairs (BMI).

In the interview he talks about the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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What do you want from the German Olympic team in Tokyo?

It is our concern that all athletes and their supervisors, coaches and officials return to their home countries in good health.

In view of the worsening pandemic situation in Japan, that is paramount.

Of course we also hope - and that is also part of top-class sport - that the German Olympic and Paralympic teams will do as well as possible.

I hope that they come back with as many medals, finals and personal bests as possible.

Top sport - and the federal government is only responsible for promoting it - is defined by success.

Through success in competitions on an international level.

Our sport-political funding goal is therefore for Germany to present itself as a sporting nation successfully, fairly and cleanly in international competition.

Is it all about success?

I expect our Team Germany / Team Germany Paralympics to be a good ambassador for our country, our sporting nation, at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It is important to us that all the successes that we will hopefully achieve and that the athletes also want to achieve, come about in a fair and manipulation-free and doping-free endeavor.

I am convinced that our athletes have internalized this intention.

As far as expectations of the results are concerned, is there a corona discount?

The conditions for the athletes were different in the different countries, also because the countries were and still are affected by the pandemic to different degrees.

Nevertheless, in top-class sport, and especially in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the goal for everyone is to win as many medals as possible or to achieve personal bests.

During the corona pandemic, too, we did our best to support the athletes, showed the greatest possible flexibility in terms of the use of budgetary funds, and made an additional ten million euros available this year to compensate for corona-related additional expenses .

Does the demand still apply to increase the medal yield by a third through the elite sports reform?

The top-level sports reform between the BMI, the DOSB and the federal states began in 2016 with a longer-term perspective. One should therefore not only base their success on percentages. In the Olympic summer sport, the changeover to potential-oriented association funding will not take place until after Tokyo 2021. The rule has always been: four to eight years to the podium. Our strong expectations are therefore also very much directed towards the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Much of what we have started, such as the reorganization of the base system in Germany or the support of athletes in dual careers, are not aimed at being successful in the short term, but are designed for the long term.

Are the German athletes fighting in Tokyo for the funding that the federal government will make available to their associations in the coming years?

The results from Tokyo will be included in the PotAs potential analysis system and thus, as planned, form the basis for funding in the shortened cycle from 2022 to 2024. However, we have agreed that we will weight the successes and results due to the corona include the European and World Championships of the years before Corona, i.e. 2018 and 2019, more strongly in the assessment.

Will you and Minister Seehofer fly to the Games in Tokyo?

It is the legitimate endeavor of the Japanese government, and hopefully the International Olympic Committee, to avoid social contact at the Games. Therefore, the management of the BMI will not be represented at either the Olympic or Paralympic Games. It was important to me, in a personal conversation with the Japanese ambassador to Germany, Mr. Yanagi, to make it clear that this is in no way perceived as a rudeness towards the Japanese host.