Olympia 2018: Federal President Steinmeier visits ice hockey training course

High attendance at the German national ice hockey team: On Saturday morning, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier watched the training of the DEB selection in Gangneung. After the opening ceremony, it was the first stop on his visit to the German Olympic Games.

“We in ice hockey rarely get such visits,”said national coach Marco Sturm:”We were proud, we were the first ones he visited,” defender Christian Ehrhoff had a lively conversation with Steinmeier,”he knew me from a game in Krefeld,”said the long-time NHL pro:”It was nice for us as a team that one of them would stop by. He knew all about my career.”

After the rehearsal session in the training hall of the Olympic arena, the Federal President, his wife Elke Büdenbender and DOSB President Alfons Hörmann took a photo on the ice in the middle of the German team. In his hands he held a DEB jersey with the number 1 on his back “I don’t know if there was an ulterior motive. It’s hard to say,”joked attacker Felix Schütz in view of the still unresolved goalkeeper question in the German ice hockey team.

The Steinmeier visit showed Schütz and Co. Ice hockey is one of the biggest things at the Winter Games – from the number of spectators and interest,”said the man from Cologne:” It’s a great thing, good advertising. We can be proud” The winter games four years ago in Sochi had missed the German team.