athletes speaker Max Hartung in an Interview on the life planning of athletes during the Corona-crisis.
Munich – Max Hartung, 30, is a man of clear words. And clear deeds. As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was unsure whether the games should be moved from castle Hartung, a personal participation in 2020, categorically. The four-time European champion in fencing is the Chairman of the athletes Commission in the DOSB and the founding President of athletes in Germany e. V. The Association wants to provide athletes in the Germany a voice and their interests in the policy, as well as the associations represented. In an interview with our newspaper Hartung speaks about working with the associations, errors of the IOC and motivation crises during the Corona pandemic.
Mr. Hartung, the perceived footballer of the Re-Start of the Bundesliga on the weekend?
I think, as in the population as a whole, was the mood of the athletes are quite mixed. Many athletes have spoken out strongly against the season continued in the League, and I can understand that also. The Situation is tense due to the Corona-crisis. For my part, I am glad that I have so much pressure as the players and the Situation can wait. Neven Subotic (professional football player at Union Berlin/Anm. d. Red.) said in an Interview made it pretty clear that he wants more of a say. For athletes, Germany is still struggling, and that would be for the football is a reasonable step.
you are the President of the Association “athletes of Germany”. What the purpose was behind the creation of 2017?
Between 2014 and the founding happened three decisive events: the performance of a sports reform in Germany, the Doping-scandal of Russia and the planning of an Anti-Doping law. We, the speaker of the athletes Commission had, to date, volunteers and brutally overwhelmed with all of the events. It was necessary that we have an organization in the back.
How your work looks like in concrete terms?
there is Now a full-time Team Johannes Herber as a managing Director. Our everyday task is the contact with the athletes. We want to know how the mood for certain topics and what moves the athletes. In the second step, we analyze the findings and represent the voice of the athletes in front of the policy and the associations. We are, for example, is regularly invited as a consultant to the sports Committee of the German Bundestag, and have worked on contract for the Olympic games in Tokyo, the so-called athlete’s agreement.
Olympic has been postponed to 2021. Has involved the IOC in the process of the displacement of the athletes?
I had the feeling that the IOC was trying very hard to give the impression that there is an exchange with the athletes. There was a telephone conference with athlete representatives from all over the world, the really important questions were not clarified often but unfortunately.
What uncertainties were there?
I had hoped that the IOC would have played with open cards with regard to possible scenarios and their consequences. We were very left long in suspense. We had no real Chance to say, with regard to the new appointment, or the qualification processes. More transparency would have been helpful. Many individual athletes depend on sponsors.
By the Corona, with the crisis in the economic situation, but more than tense. How much of the hits the athletes?
I notice that on myself. The severity of impact is the life-planning. We prepare almost minutely at the Olympic games, create a Plan over four years. And you will be swept away suddenly. This is like a house of cards, with your sports career, as the top card, then breaks together. The financial consequences are more likely in the medium term.
Name?
I think that insolvencies of Clubs and sponsors to come on us. This is true, then, indirectly, the athletes, and is a hard blow. So far, there are only single cases in which the complete financial support, is broken away. Many athletes are in the army or the police and shall continue to be paid. The German sports aid Foundation has been able to put their promotion to the yet fully gone.
the athletes, the sponsors break away support Like?
The losses can be absorbed by the German sports aid Foundation. We need to anticipate problems but also, of course, and now strategies. What happens if there are only individual cases, but there are a number of ways athletes can no longer make a living? Who will be promoted in the future, in times where no contests take place? We are working with the Ministry of the interior and the DOSB in discussions in order to clarify such questions.
The sports federations have a lot of Power in Germany and, in part, rigid structures. Is it taken as a athletes Association at all seriously?
have been So used to slow all that we athletes have a say. But we had to fight for it, and it was a hard way. In the framework of the Olympic movement DOSB has obtained a picture of the mood in the athletes. I found very good, that has certainly not made every National Olympic Committee. Overall, the DOSB and its President Alfons Hörmann, in my eyes, has made the crisis a very good Job.
So the collaboration with the associations is straightforward?
the Bottom line is that the DOSB and its member organisations is open for constructive cooperation. But there are of course still things with which we are not satisfied. For example, in the case of nomination processes for highlights, or in promotion of the communication between the associations and athletes must be improved. There’s quite a lot goes wrong and we get to hear complaints.
How do you go with the Corona-crisis?
to be Quite honest, this is currently a header-coaster. In between, I have Bock and a lot of energy, then it falls to me, but hard to concentrate in the Training. Without competitions, in which I can compete with the Best in the world, it is conceive difficult to workout and stay motivated. This is bothering me.
Makes it in the current Phase have any meaning at all, to set goals for the Olympics?
I’ve never had such a long break. The time horizons that are usual, neither we, the athletes nor the coaches. It is all new, we are on Stand-By, and try not einzurosten. Therefore, I set myself actual goals for 2021, but attempts by me to put small nearby targets. I hope that Tokyo will be a Highlight and at the same time, a grandiose farewell party of my career, but also that the pandemic will take a long time.
So to Tokyo in 2021, and end the international career?
This is my feeling today. Tokyo is supposed to be the last big Highlight of my fencing career. But currently everything is so uncertain because I can not define me.
Interview: Nico-Marius Schmitz
