Folks, if the medals are so important to you, please give us a hand.

So generous that we have our heads free when it matters.

If you require professional performance, please enable us to prepare professionally.

It seems as if the information provided by the more than a thousand athletes on the general conditions of their actions and activities is a response to dissatisfaction and grumbling about the performance of the German team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021. Less than half as many medals as in Barcelona 1992, less than a third of the 33 Olympic victories in the soaring first games after German reunification - it goes without saying that there are reasons for this.

The athletes, interviewed by the German Sport University on behalf of the German Sports Aid Foundation, took the opportunity to make their point of view clear.

It starts with the money: a third say it is not enough that they can concentrate on the sport.

Even of those who reached the finals of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, more than a fifth embraced this finding.

About the coaches: around a third of those surveyed are not satisfied with the expertise (28 percent) and management style (33 percent) of the coaches.

The tendency to receive offers for the professional future, but not to make sufficient use of them, may also contribute to the fact that even the best of the best in Tokyo were not involved.

Every fourth German athlete who reached the final of the Olympic or Paralympic Games in Tokyo stated that he was not fully mentally present in this. Among the top German athletes, this even applies to every third or third party at the height of the season. Something is going wrong in top-class Olympic and Paralympic sport. After all, attempts have been made to reform it with a certain degree of rigor in recent years and government funding from the Federal Ministry of the Interior alone has been increased to almost 300 million euros.

Anyone who derives demands from this will now see in black and white that the athletes are missing the most important things.

Almost half of them (44 percent) lack the appreciation of society, almost two thirds (63 percent) feel they are not valued by the media, and even more than two thirds (69 percent) by politics.

Much would be gained if the importance of gold medals were expressed in the reputation of those who want to win them.