Historical bankruptcy for the German curling sport: For the first time since the resumption of the Olympic programme in 1998, no German team has qualified for the Winter Games. At the qualifying tournament in Pilsen, Czech Republic, the skips Alexander Baumann (Rastatt) and Daniela Jentsch (feet) missed the ticket to Pyeongchang/South Korea in places seven and six respectively (9th place). till 25. February).
Only the top three teams in Pilsen had a chance to finish in the last two places on the starting grid. Italy was the first team to qualify for the men’s and women’s games in Italy and China.
“We are just as disappointed as the two teams at the missed opportunity. At this level, small details are often decisive,”said Bernhard Mayr, President of the German Curling Association (DCV). Everything must be put to the test in order to identify the correct levers and change them accordingly.
In the context of the new competitive sport reform after the Olympia-K. o., it will be used for the DCV. Pilsen will not make it easier to be taken into account in the future distribution of funding as it has been up to now. As early as 2014, curling was the first Olympic sport to be threatened with the end of production.
Only after intensive talks with the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) and the financial backer, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, as well as concessions for necessary reforms, could this be averted.
Nevertheless, Mayr is optimistic about the future:”Our overall impression in German curling is that it will be possible to reach the top ten in the world in the foreseeable future and win an Olympic medal in the long term until 2026.”.
This outlook seems extremely bold, the German curling sport is clearly at a disadvantage compared to the leading nations such as Canada and Sweden. There, curling is done professionally and the number of players is also much higher.
Daniela Jentsch fought after the failure:”All in all, we have to say that the pressure was a bit too much for some of the inexperienced members of our team. We’ve tried everything – even with changes in the line-up, but it wasn’t enough.”
In April, the German champions Julia Meißner and Andy Büttner (Geising) had already failed to qualify for the premiere of the mixed doubles competition.
Since 1998 in Nagano, Germany has always been part of the team. The Men’s Curling Competition 1924 in Chamonix was only recognized as an official competition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2006.
At that time, no German team was present either. It took 74 years to get the sport back on the Olympic program.