Very successful: Bernhard Fluck won eight European Championship medals with the Swiss men.
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Oliver Hegi (left) and Pablo Brägger were among his strongest assets.
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But now Fluck, here with Claudio Capelli in 2012, should no longer be allowed to train team 2021.
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It’s about the athletes, says Fluck. Pablo Brägger (picture) …
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… And Oliver Hegi became European champions under him.
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After rhythmic gymnastics, there is also a boom in Swiss art gymnasts! The successful head coach Bernhard Fluck (64) will soon be out of office – although he wanted to look after the team in Tokyo until the Olympics in 2021.
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“When it became known that the Olympic Games would be postponed to 2021 due to the corona pandemic, I informed the association that I would like to continue,” says Fluck.
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The successful head coach of the men (8 EM medals, two EM gold), in office since 2009, will retire in May 2021. “I would have liked to postpone my retirement by three months so that the athletes can go to the Olympic Games with the best preparation.”
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Secret press conference
But he shouldn’t do that, Fluck explains on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference called by himself. The STV knows nothing about this! Fluck is angry. “I was called to the office in Aarau on June 19 and told me that my contract would not be extended until the 2021 games.” He has been silent since then. And suffered. “Sleepless nights have plagued me ever since, I have a headache, and I ask myself in the training hall all the time: ‘What am I still doing here?'”
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After eleven years as a head coach and eight years as a junior head, the central association president Erwin Grossenbacher, managing director Ruedi Hediger and Felix Stingelin, head of top sports at the STV, would have simply sawed him off. “What the association has done to me is disrespectful,” says Fluck. “I feel used.”
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“I’m worried about the national team”
Because Laurent Tricoire, who is moving to Belgium at the end of the year, is already an assistant coach leaving the STV, preparations for the 2021 Olympics are at risk. “I’m worried about the national team for the games,” he says. “Replacing two out of three coaches eight months before the climax is not optimal in preparation.”
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The explanation that the head of the EM gold gymnasts Oliver Hegi and Pablo Brägger received: One is already planning the Olympic cycle until Paris 2024. «It seems as if they simply missed out at the Olympia 2021 association.»
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However, he feels committed to the current athlete. “These are top athletes who can also achieve something.”
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The association says: Because it is still not certain whether Tokyo 2021 can actually take place and a reconstruction is necessary for Paris 2024, the decision was made to “stick to the schedule of the succession plan”. A successor has been determined since July 2, but the contract has not yet been signed. The previous assistant Laurent Guelzec is said to have excellent cards.
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Zoff with top sports boss Felix Stingelin
The bang is preceded by gossip with top sports boss Stingelin: At the Olympics 2016 in Rio, Fluck had to stay at home because Stingelin was accredited for the games and the head coach was no longer accredited. “At that time, I had to decide which two male coaches would go to Rio,” says Fluck.
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He then sacrificed himself and sent the two equipment specialists Laurent Tricoire and Laurent Guelzec with them. «But of course the sporting support would have been even better if I had also been there. I have known these athletes for years and work intensively with them. When I talk to them in the morning, I immediately see how they slept. I smell what deodorant you applied today. The head of top sports, on the other hand, is located 100 kilometers from Magglingen. »
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Fluck about Stingelin: «He has to put his ego in the background»
After Rio, the disagreement was so great that mediation should help. She found that in the future Fluck would no longer have to worry about the selection of the coaches. Stingelin should have done that in the future – with regard to Tokyo 2020, however, it looked as if the task would stick to him again and only two coaching positions would be free.
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What does Fluck hope from going it alone? “I am concerned with gymnastics in Switzerland.” And in the STV leadership, certain gentlemen would have to become a little more humble. Above all, the head of top sport, Felix Stingelin: “He would have to move his ego into the background.”
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STV spokesman Thomas Greutmann said when asked by BLICK: “We are amazed at the path that Bernhard Fluck has chosen. We are examining how to proceed. » A number of other questions are left unanswered by the association.