Barriers in everyday life and in people's minds can trigger a crisis in sports for disabled people.

Many people with disabilities are deterred because there is a lack of a welcoming culture in sports facilities and sports clubs, said Jürgen Dusel, the federal government commissioner for the interests of people with disabilities, on Wednesday in the sports committee of the German Bundestag.

The pandemic has magnified the problem.

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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The German Disabled Sports Association (DBS) lost around 107,000 members in 2020 and 2021.

With 13 million people with disabilities in Germany, it currently has almost 491,000 members.

Verena Bentele, President of the VdK social association and multiple Paralympics winner, in her role as Vice President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), called for access to sport to be understood as a task for society as a whole.

For many disabled people, the diverse range of popular sports is not normal.

In addition, the current energy crisis will set back participation and inclusion efforts by years.

That is why disabled sports must play a prominent role at the movement summit of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Health in December.

Friedhelm Julius Beucher, President of the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS), demanded that it would not be enough just to think about the needs of people with disabilities.

In the long term, the summit must lead to the improvement of participation in sport.

Only seven percent of the almost 88,000 sports clubs in Germany offer disabled sports;

that's almost 6,200. According to a survey before the pandemic, 55 percent of people with disabilities do not do sports.

The exploding energy costs threaten to further exacerbate the crisis.

"Reducing the temperature in swimming pools or closing the pools," said Julius Beucher, "would be fatal for rehabilitation sports."

Bentele and Beucher drew attention to the fact that people with disabilities are not provided with sufficient equipment by the statutory health insurance companies to enable them to do sports in the first place.

In individual cases, those affected would argue for up to three years about the financing of aids such as special wheelchairs, reported Beucher.

There is a lack of advice and information services.

Bentele demanded that the insurance companies should not see sports equipment as support for the hobby, but as equipment for maintaining health.

The difficult search for athletes with disabilities

Only three percent of those affected are born with a disability;

diseases and accidents predominantly lead to disability.

However, this is not the only reason why schools are largely unsuitable for bringing people with disabilities into contact with sport.

Beucher reported to the members of the sports committee that data protection prevents the disabled sports association and the approximately 6,500 disabled sports clubs from being able to look for potential athletes there.

"Sport at school is the Achilles' heel for children with disabilities," said Beucher.

Pupils were lost in mainstream schools;

In addition, they are usually exempt from school sports.

"We have a problem with finding athletes," he said: "That's why our association now employs scouts." The ministers of education left the topic alone.

On the subject of "Safe Sport", a controversy between athletes in Germany and organized sport became clear in the sports committee on Wednesday.

The organization of top athletes has been running the independent contact point “Start Against Violence” since May.

By the end of October, 93 people had contacted this organization;

A total of around 180 people affected have reported to Athletes Germany and the contact point.

According to an evaluation of the latest figures, these are mainly current and former athletes in national teams.

Almost 60 percent of them reported recurring experiences of violence in sport.

Maximilian Klein from Athletes Germany reported that, based on this experience, there is no secure mechanism in the elite sports system to clarify grievances effectively and in the interest of those affected, to initiate independent investigations and draw conclusions.

In addition, there is a lack of competence, resources and capacities

Christina Gassner, in her capacity as managing director of the German Sports Youth, insisted that the latter and the DOSB supported the planned establishment of "Safe Sport", provided the state financed it, but that the associations relinquished their original responsibility for ensuring protection against violence in sport all levels of sports associations and clubs.

The coalition has set itself the task of building up “Safe Sport”.