The Paralympics in Paris are over. In Germany, athletes and officials dream of playing in front of a home crowd. But unsuccessful applications must first be analyzed.
The atmospheric course of the Paralympics in Paris has fuelled the desire of many German athletes and officials of the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS) to play in front of a home crowd. “Maybe I won’t be there as an athlete anymore, but how cool would it be to be there as a spectator. I can only say to everyone: please, please support this,” said Juliane Wolf, who won silver and bronze in table tennis.
Two-time table tennis silver medalist Thomas Schmidberger explained: “I am a huge fan of this idea. What must it feel like to play in front of your own people? I wish every athlete could experience that at some point in their career.”
However, delegation leader Karl Quade is first calling for the unsuccessful applications of the past to be analyzed. Leipzig’s application for the 2012 event had already failed in the pre-selection of the International Olympic Committee, and the people of Hamburg stopped the project for 2024 in a referendum.
“Some mistakes were made,” said Quade. “I would like to see an investigation into the applications that were not implemented – in my opinion, that is missing. We have seen here that if you want to apply for an event like the Olympic and Paralympic Games, you have to stand together as one.”
Support from DBS
Meanwhile, it is undisputed that the DBS supports hosting the event in Germany. “I said to the Prime Minister of a country: just look at the top ten nations. They are almost all nations in which the Olympic and Paralympic Games have taken place,” explained DBS President Friedhelm Julius Beucher. “The Olympics are the high point of a country’s sporting development. It releases so much: in terms of sport, in terms of awareness, in terms of life, but also in terms of money.” For these reasons alone, an application makes sense, said Beucher.
The German government has also taken a clear position. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) signed a declaration of intent that the 2040 Games should take place in Germany.
Source: Stern
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