Fabian Hambüchen talked about the current state of artistic gymnastics in Germany in a short interview with SWR.de. He believes there are two big issues at play that slow down the development of the sport: low salaries for the coaches and low level of motivation among the gymnasts. He talked about his friend who had to move to Austria to coach:
“The general problem is that there is next to no incentive to pursue a career as a coach in German gymnastics. And when there are no qualified coaches, there won’t be any hopefuls coming up the ranks soon. A friend of mine is a coach in Austria now, where they offered him a ten-year contract. Here, he was only offered six months. That’s an internship – and therefore a bad joke.”
He also recalled losing funding when preparing for the 2016 Games, despite performing quite well in London:
“In 2012, we won three silver medals at the Olympic Games. We were basically at the top of our game and then the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) told us a year later that there would be no more stipends for us, because we lost our sponsors. Are they crazy? Everything must have gone wrong there!”
He feels like the current gymnasts do not have the right priorities:
“Todays generation of up-and-comers has a different mindset than we did. I always had an eagerness and drive as a 15- or 16-year old to overtake my elder sportsmen and be better. In many, I don’t see that anymore. The certain edge and passion is missing. The Instagram story is more important than the training itself. And when I hear that somebody wishes to be a professional influencer or YouTuber – I start seeing red.”
Hambüchen still has a certain itch for gymnastics and even contemplated a comeback:
“Give me three months of training and I’ll be right back at the top. However, it would not make too much sense, because what is a better way to go out than I did – with an Olympic gold in 2016? If I would be able to repeat my win in Tokyo, that would be a slap in the face in the public eye, that’s how it is in sports.”
Translation from German by Barbara.
