The upcoming government also likes sports.

At least she pretends to be.

The coalition agreement speaks of all sorts of beautiful plans, of Olympic projects, support for top-class sports, of the goal of protecting athletes of all ages from attacks, of research projects to come to terms with German doping history.

Above all, however, sports facilities, especially swimming pools, are to be renovated or newly built.

Wonderful.

Interior Minister Seehofer (CSU) also planned to do this at the suggestion of the SPD. Then came the pandemic, which, as we have not only known since today, does not even affect humanity and then soon lets go. And that's why one sentence in the declaration of intent by the three coalition parties is frightening: "We are continuing to promote the restart of popular sport after Corona."

After Corona? Wouldn't that have already been the case, as it was called in early autumn? Will it be so far in the spring of 2022, when everyone, however, is vaccinated? Or could it be that the pandemic will last much longer? That is not excluded. This is one of the reasons why the phrase “restarting popular sport after Corona” acts like an oath of disclosure. It indirectly documents the willingness to freeze any urge to move again with the next tangible lockdown for popular sport, regardless of the importance of sport for life, for the most harmless survival possible.

Where is the eye for the sense of regular exercise described, especially for those for whom it is of existential importance, for children and the elderly? The old come, who doesn't know that from their own family, no longer get going once they have been forced to a standstill. The boys are inhibited in their physical and mental development without regular leeway. That is part of basic education. But for decades, educational policy has refused to upgrade neglected school sport. It seems to be paintable at all times. Although sport educates the brain and the heart.

With great creativity and tremendous commitment, right at the beginning of the pandemic, the clubs developed exercise programs at a distance and via all online channels.

Otherwise the number of people leaving and children with behavioral problems would have increased enormously.

A lesson could be drawn from this, which should be reflected in the coalition agreement.

But the masterminds of the new government are obviously again relying on the regulation chosen in the lockdown for the roughly 90,000 clubs to remain in largely total rigidity until the danger is over.

How this strategy fits in with the “Dare More Progress” program is a mystery.

After twenty months of the pandemic, smart sports policy would offer solutions for children and seniors.

A strategy that protects them and keeps them moving at the same time.