Karla Borger, one of the best beach volleyball players in the world, denied the sport-political attack on Sunday, even though she is online.
The 32-year-old, Universiade winner and World Championship runner-up in 2013 and winner of the World Tour Final in 2021, was elected President of the organization with 1,400 members with 44 votes from the almost 100 participants in the General Assembly of Athletes Germany.
Michael Reinsch
Correspondent for sports in Berlin.
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On Sunday, she spoke to journalists about the fact that the formation of a government and the upcoming election of the leadership of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) would set the course for sport and sports policy, but passed the ball to Johannes Herber, the managing director of Athleten Deutschland. The Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in February, the Center for Safe Sport and the equality of athletes have been set as priorities until 2022, she said.
"There has to be a restructuring", Borger had demanded in a discussion on Deutschlandfunk after the Olympic Games: "It cannot go on like this." That she did not mean the medal balance, which was disappointing for many sports officials, and that she did not call for the reform of top-class sports to be pushed be clear.
After all, in 2017 she refused the centralization of German beach volleyball players ordered by the association and became so politicized that she became a founding member of the independent athletes in Germany.
"We should come first"
In February 2021, she and her partner Julia Sude decided not to start at the tournament in Doha because they did not want to be dictated by the Qatari state to work in long trousers and long sleeves instead of in a sports bikini. The promotion of top-class sport should not be based on medals alone, said the Olympic participant in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021 after her early departure in Japan, but on honest and social sport with a focus on enjoying it.
When asked about the search for candidates for the DOSB presidency, which was assigned to a search committee, she said: “It's about us, it's about our future. We athletes should come first. It's about our life that we put into sport. It would make perfect sense to involve athletes. ”Herber said that there was no discussion of all those involved in sport about which department should be responsible for federal sport funding in the future, whether more money would be needed and which top-class sport society should be actually wishes.
Do German athletes, he asked, have to be measured by the performance of athletes whose home countries have different values and doping controls are less important than in Germany? Karla Borger mentioned that too many talents left the sport too early and that there was a lack of a broad mass of sportspeople and youth work by the associations.
Herber took the proposal of the National Anti-Doping Agency to take over the tasks of the Center for Safe Sport requested by Athleten Germany as an opportunity to point out that complaints and reports from athletes were not investigated with sufficient care. Reports were sent that there were no results. As a result, athletes would be forced to make their cases public: "This often does not end in the resolution of the case, but in frustration." He called for a neutral body to investigate independently and to impose sanctions.
Former water polo player Tobias Preuss was elected Vice President;
the marathon runner Fabienne Königstein, the wheelchair basketball player Mareike Miller and the art cyclist Lukas Kohl belong to the executive committee.
In its first meeting on Saturday, this co-opted the luge rider Dajana Eitberger and the saber fencer Léa Krüger.
Borger and Herber surprised everyone with the announcement that they were step-siblings by marriage.