M.ichael Groß will not return to the German Swimming Association (DSV) as competitive sports director. This is what the three-time Olympic champion said in this newspaper. DSV President Marco Troll told him in a phone call that the association “does not seek cooperation because an internal solution is preferred”.
The candidate for this internal solution up to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo seems to be Harald Walter, currently President of the Bavarian Swimming Association – and Vice President of the DSV. He is said to have already tried to get an exemption from his employer. A temporary solution would also be conceivable with Lutz Buschkow, the national coach of the water divers already held the post from 2008 to 2016. At the same time, the post is to be re-advertised for the no less large construction sites after the Olympics. The DSV left a request for this unanswered. The board wants to present its solution to the presidium in an “information meeting” this Friday.
This would at least clarify one of the important questions, after all, the DSV has been without a competitive sports director for two months since the controversial separation from Thomas Kurschilgen. But there are many more. Because they have so far remained officially unanswered, five state associations have now got together and invited to an informal general meeting, two hours before the convened meeting of the presidium. There are three points on the agenda: competitive sport, communication and the financial situation in the DSV.
Will not be competitive sports director: Former swimmer Michael Groß.
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Image: dpa
In competitive sports, especially swimming, the situation has escalated since the separation from Kurschilgen. Letters from national coaches Bernd Berkhahn and Hannes Vitense, in which they refer to what they consider to be negligent chaos a few months before the Olympic Games, were not answered. You feel abandoned, even deliberately ignored. Two days after the last qualifying competition for Tokyo, they turned to the association management again on Tuesday, this time in an open letter, asking, among other things, why the DSV board “changed Michael Groß – despite multiple requests for appointments from the coach and athlete * inner circle – not constructively and quickly with the full-time management staff ”.
The course is set on confrontation
The letter was also signed by athletes spokeswoman Sarah Köhler, Paul Biedermann, Britta Steffen and Franziska van Almsick as well as the chairmen of the works council; “urgently to be implemented” contract extensions by employees, for example in the office, would also be postponed.
The national coaches are in favor of Kurschilgen’s rehabilitation and had brought Groß as the “only acceptable solution” as an alternative. Not only do they fear that in this game of power and influence (probably also about such mundane things as Olympic tickets) what has been built up in competitive sports in recent years will be torn down: professional structures, away from voluntary work, towards leadership by full-time employees Employee. Troll recently denied to this newspaper that they wanted to regain control of competitive sport as volunteers: “It was never our intention to change these structures, they are successful, we don’t want to intervene.”
But the skepticism in competitive sports remains. In their open letter, the national coaches apparently asked one last time to answer the same questions in preparation for a joint conversation last Wednesday. Since this did not happen, it is said that the national coaches canceled the appointment. The course is set on confrontation. And not only in competitive sports.
No relaxation in sight
The fact that the regional associations of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Lower Saxony and Hamburg, who jointly invited to the meeting before the meeting, are alarmed is also due to the rumors of a financially tense situation of the DSV. Rumors that are also making the rounds because the board has so far not submitted a draft budget for 2021, a liquidity plan or a business analysis. According to reports, the association is facing financial problems after a Corona year 2020 with missing license revenues in the high six-digit range and expenses for a possibly illegal separation of course students. And related to this, the question: Who is liable for economic damage, should the association’s management lead to this?
The five associations also explicitly address their invitation to the board of directors, but at the same time make it clear: “If we as state associations do not receive any answers to these questions from the board, the state associations would have to agree on a further course of action.”
This can be understood as a threat, even if it is not very powerful, as they have so far lacked the majority necessary for a vote of no confidence. After all, with the current board of directors, they have the associations with the largest number of members from Bavaria (DSV Vice President Walter), Brandenburg (Vice President Wolfgang Rupieper) and North Rhine-Westphalia (DSV Vice President Bossmann) against them, with whom Troll as President of the Baden Swimming Association in November – without Opposing candidates – ran for election.
A resignation of the board is not expected. Neither, however, that the waves smoothed out on Friday. On the contrary. In view of the timing of Kurschilgen’s dismissal a few days after allegations of sexual violence against Würzburg trainer Stefan Lurz became known, a plan to install the President of the Bavarian Swimming Association as competitive sports director with Walter is likely to create further waves.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/after-rejection-for-large-why-germanys-swimmers-feel-deliberately-ignored/
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