Thomas Weikert was elected President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) by a large majority.

The lawyer from Hesse prevailed on Saturday at the general meeting of the umbrella organization in Weimar against Claudia Bokel, President of the German Fencing Association.

Weikert received 361 of the 417 possible votes of the delegates present in a secret ballot.

That is 86.6 percent.

His opponent received 56 votes.

Anno Hecker

Responsible editor for sports.

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The former president of the German and the international table tennis association is elected for one year. In December 2022 he will have to face the vote again. The new election before the end of the term of office had become necessary after the ethics committee of the DOSB had recommended a trust vote in the course of its investigation of the anonymous and open criticism of the management style of Weikert's predecessor Alfons Hörmann with a view to the "overall atmosphere". Hörmann decided not to run again. The Allgäu, who suffered from Corona weeks ago, stayed away from the DOSB's face-to-face meeting on Saturday on "medical advice".

Weikert is considered a man of balance.

The sixty-year-old will have to pacify as a foreign politician as well as the internal quarrel.

Under Hörmann, the relationship with the officials of the Federal Ministry of the Interior responsible for top-class sport was massively disrupted.

There was an open dispute with the International Olympic Committee this year.

"Giving sport a strong voice"

In his application speech, Weikert focused on the importance of team spirit for success at all levels, when he listed the current core weaknesses of the DOSB and called for the association to use its potential: "We have to regain a strong voice in the sport Giving company. ”The table tennis player, who is still active, addressed, among other things, the inadequate lobby of the DOSB among those in power in times of the pandemic. The coalition agreement of the new federal government shows no change in this point.

The clubs are threatened with another lockdown in the fourth wave, and children with it the return to immobility, which inhibits their physical and mental development. School sports have been canceled in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Weikert aims to strengthen popular sport in the DOSB by filling the position of sport development on the board again.

With a view to the base and the top, he pleaded for the "diversity and unity of sport" that should be lived again, before he urged the members to create the conditions for overcoming the great challenges: "We have to have a modern, Build a credible, honest DOSB that people in Germany can trust again. ”At the end of her performance, his opponent complained about the piercing of information:“ We have to look each other honestly in the eye, ”said Claudia Bokel and asked rhetorically:“ We would like that work together?"

Before the elections, Thomas de Maizière, chairman of the ethics committee, had spoken to the DOSB in the spirit of Weikert and Bokel: "I just want to emphasize for the entire ethics committee: A new election is not enough if there is not a total Dealing with each other and with the outside world changes something, "said the former Federal Minister of the Interior and formulated a few suggestions for behavior:" If we don't talk too often about the big sports family, we don't exaggerate that, we behave quite normally. In everything we think first of those who do sport, then of the DOSB and then of ourselves. Confidential should remain confidential. Anonymous allegations should be the big exception. Let's just not talk badly about others in the DOSB. "

It will take patience to improve the reputation of the DOSB, added the CDU politician, and concluded with what Weikert's first, most difficult task will be: "Trust is best created through joint action."