On the other hand, the 31-year-old fears the loss of a whole generation of athletes. “Many young athletes might prefer to invest their talent in other areas. What is being lost will only become visible years later,” said Hartung of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Turner Marcel Nguyen expressed himself similarly.
When asked whether he feared that gymnastics could lose talent due to the closings of the halls, the two-time Olympic silver medal winner from London said in the ZDF’s “Current Sports Studio”: “I definitely have the fear.” Last week, the German Football Association and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) asked politicians to relax the corona restrictions in the amateur sector – especially for children and young people doing sports in the open air.
Sport and exercise are “an important part of education” and doing sport is not part of the problem, but part of the solution to fighting the pandemic, according to an open letter from the DOSB.
But the general tendency is towards tightening rather than easing. For example, Bavaria’s state government recently banned all recreational sports in the hall with immediate effect – including those that were previously considered harmless, such as tennis or horse riding. “We have no understanding for this hasty measure – the people’s soul of our athletes, sports clubs and professional sports associations is seething,” said the President of the Bavarian State Sports Association (BLSV), Jörg Ammon.
In the dilemma between infection protection and contact restrictions on the one hand and the possibility of doing sports on the other, the direction of politics currently seems to be quite uncompromising.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201114-99-331042 / 3
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