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German Olympic Athlete Leaders Call For Professional & Legal Status In Sport
- Updated: November 28, 2016
The Athletes’ Commission of the German Olympic Committee (DOSB) have laid out a set of demands that not only call for the stars of the show – the swimmers, runners and so on – to have a much bigger say in the way their world is run but have their professional status enshrined in law and the structure of sports federations in a way that means little can happen without their official input.
Following the latest of two annual general meetings a statement under a headline that includes “Restructuring of sport”, the athletes representatives put meat on the bones of a “foundation stone” plan laid down last year and handed to DOSB bosses with a view to reforming the structure of elite sports governance.
“The vision”, as the athletes’ describe their plan, is clear: the role of the professional athlete must be “anchored in society” in the way that other professions are, namely “without fear of being disadvantaged” by their very role and the “risk” inherent in seeking success in international sport for Germany. And that must be backed up by professional and legal representation in all dealings with federations and those they “work” for.
At the tail end of an annus horribilis for the Olympic bosses, the Russian doping scandal a key chapter in a catalogue of concerns, the German boss of the International Olympic Committee is likely to take note of what his nation’s top athletes are saying. Their message is one shared by other athletes from around the world.
The goals of athletes are stated by the German group as follows:
We want to be successful We want to train in our sport without fearing for our livelihood We want to compete in fair and clean competition We want to be able to train in professional conditions We want to have a say in the decisions affecting us
Franziska Hentke of Germany – by PBK
The athletes believe that such things can only be achieved if they have a legal status and relationship with bodies such as the Olympic Committee and their individual sports federations (the domestic situation relevant to their international status). The athletes’ statement sums up how they feel about the status quo:
“Sports federations are monopoly providers of their sports through …
