Dr. Hartmut Sandner Institute for Applied Training Science Marschnerstr. 29 D-04109 Leipzig [email protected]
Core elements of successful elite sport systems - The example of GDR elite sport and modern national elite sport systems of today
During a press conference in the middle of the 70s the former head coach of the West German national fencing team, the famous, Emil Beck, was asked about this view on the elite sport system of the GDR. He told the journalists that “the GDR elite sport is managed like one of our successful commercial enterprises.” This statement really summarizes a lot of what characterized the performance based GDR elite sport system, but, on the other hand, it does not explain the different goals, structures and elements of this approach in the former GDR’s elite sport. In addition it does not tell us anything about the social and political system that created this elite sport approach and if this system was unique or not, nor does is tell us why this system was as successful as it was. But before presenting core elements of the GDR elite sport system as well as similar features in successful national elite sport systems of today I would like to make a few introductory remarks.
When preparing this paper for the conference today it became clear to me that I can only present to you a selection of major approaches, organisations, structures and mechanisms that characterized this elite sport system and its development during 40 years. It will not be possible to outline a picture that really covers all the features. The system simply was too complex with all its links within the sport system, but also with other fields of GDR society. My paper can give you an impression of that complexity and might also lead you to understand that there are a couple of aspects in this system that were quite unique when the GDR created them, but which today belong to several modern elite sport systems. It might also make you better understand, or to get a confirmation of your existing understanding, that there are some features which are indispensable to create and manage a successful elite sport system.
－ 87 － And I want to remind all of us of two additional aspects. The first refers to a saying of one of the sport physicians at our Institute in Leipzig: “You cannot fool your body”. But we can understand our body and we have to understand our body as an indispensable prerequisite to train for elite performance. For the second aspect I would like to quote the American 1976 Olympic champion in swimming, John Naber, with his statement: “The people who do the hardest work are be the ones who win medals. Hard work is still the key to success.” This slogan could have come from many of the athletes, coaches, scientists and managers working in GDR elite sport. The training athlete was always in the focus of the scientific and practical approaches in the GDR.
Having lived all my life in the GDR from the middle of the 50s until its funeral in 1991 and with my job at the Centre for Scientific Information Physical Culture and Sport in Leipzig I am aware of the fact that doping means were applied in GDR elite sport. The major goals for their application were - a fast recovery of athletes following high training loads and in case of injuries and - an accelerated and stable development of crucial factors of athletic performance (as enhancement of muscular cross sectional area or altitude adaptation). The application of doping substances was (and still is today) prohibited by rules and regulations of the IOC as well as of the international sports federations and was (and still is) unfair, especially because the systematic application was sanctioned by the state and an almost perfect country-wide doping abuse system was developed. It also has always been a very dangerous act with respect to the health of the athletes because of all the possible short-term and long-term consequences of the drugs. We know of the doping practice in the GDR from documents that were preserved by a state organisation that also influenced the elite sport system of the GDR a lot – the Secret Service (Stasi) that was observing almost all activities in this social sub- system of the GDR. And the Stasi even had its independent elite sport organisation “Dynamo” with many Olympic, World and European champions. The understanding of the influence of both doping and Stasi on the development of GDR elite sport is important, but information and knowledge from the past as well as from today prove that the tremendous success of the GDR in international sport cannot be reduced to just these two factors.
－ 88 － To understand what really happened in the sport halls and on the training tracks between the beautiful city of Dresden in the south and in the swimming pools and the yachting centre in Rostock in the north of the GDR a more detailed analysis and presentation is requested.
Olympic Winter Games Olympic Summer Games GDR 17 Mio. inhabitants Gold Silver Bronze Nations’ Gold Silver Bronze Nations’ founded in 1949 Ranking Ranking capitol: Berlin 15 districts 1956 0 0 1 12 1 4 2 18 140 counties
1960 2 1 0 8 3 9 7 10
1964 2 2 0 7 3 11 5 11
1968 1 2 2 10 9 9 7 5
1972 4 3 7 2 20 23 23 3
1976 7 5 7 2 40 25 25 2 3.4 Mio. members in German Gymnastics 1980 9 7 7 2 47 37 42 2 and Sport Federation DTSB 1984 9 9 6 1 - - - -
1988 9 10 6 2 37 35 30 2
Fig. 1: GDR results in Olympic Games 1956-1988
I will try to give you an overview of the core elements and their development in junior and senior elite sport in this small country in the heart of Europe that managed to rank among the top three nations in the late 1970s and during the 1980s with only 17 Million inhabitants. The often limited knowledge about the “closed system of GDR elite sport” lead to explanations as “miracle”, but looking at both the social foundations of GDR sport in general and at the structures that were developed it may turn into a better understanding. The development of elite sport was always considered a major topic of both the government, the reigning political party, the national sport organisation “German Gymnastics and Sport Association” (DTSB) and the National Olympic Committee. Their common understanding was that planning of athletic success was possible, but
－ 89 － needed a common and aim directed approach of all participating bodies, organisations, coaches, scientists and athletes. One consequence of this planned approach, for example, was that for every medal that the GDR wanted to win three athletes had to be prepared with the athletic potential for international top performances. The elite sport clubs consequently prepared, on a long-term perspective, three athletes for this level of performance in a certain event trying to avoid that an injury, an unexpected minor performance enhancement or failure in the major competition or other influences that would affect the overall result of the GDR team. To speak about the success of GDR’s elite sport systems is only possible with some remarks on the socio-economic situation that this young German state was faced with from its foundation in 1949. With the experience of the abused 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin 1936, but also with the great athletic success of the athletes of the Soviet Union in the 1952 Olympic Games, when they ranked first in the nations’ ranking at their first appearance in the Olympic arenas, the tremendous effects of international athletic success became obvious to all stakeholders. A successful elite sport was considered one way to both convince people in the GDR of the superiority of the communist model of society over the alternative in the West and to show the world the performance capacity of this small European country again in comparison with the Federal Republic of Germany in the West. In addition these “ambassadors in training overalls” – as the elite athletes were called – could become an effective tool to gain international recognition, both in international sport with all its media coverage, but also on a state level. The development in the 50s, 60s and 70s proved that the strategic approach in these three directions turned out to be a quite effective one.
Core elements of GDR’s elite sport systems All plans, decisions, structures and support systems for elite sport in the GDR have always been focussing on the development of the junior and senior elite athletes and their athletic performance. All measures in this respect got top priority. When reading about the 2004 USOC slogan of “athletes first” these days I was reminded of just this strategic approach and its practical consequences. GDR’s elite sport strategy was developed over a period of 30 years and finally the following major features belonged to the most important:
－ 90 － 1. definition of clear and challenging goals for the system as a whole as well as for its different elements based on detailed analyses of the international as well as of the national state-of-the-art 2. clear and strict management structures on national level (NOC, NGOs) as well as on the level of the sport associations for the preparation and implementation of necessary decisions with an unequivocal definition of duties, responsibilities and rights 3. effective structures and organisations of coaches’ academic training and further education 4. system of applied training science and research with an interdisciplinary sport- specific approach to the benefit of athletic performance as a link between theory and practice 5. development and control of scientifically based training systems created for the following groups of sports - endurance sports (as biathlon, speed skating, cross-country skiing, swimming, canoeing, rowing or middle and long distance running in track and field) - strength and power sports (as weightlifting, throwing and jumping events in track and field or ski jumping) - combat sports (as wrestling, judo, boxing and fencing) - technico-acrobatical sports (as gymnastics, diving, figure skating, yachting or bobsleigh) - sport games (as soccer, volleyball, handball or ice hockey) 6. long-term approach of performance development both with respect to training content and effective solutions for the combination between school and academic education and advanced athletic training 7. the country-wide system of “Children’s and Youth Sport Schools” as the adapted school system for gifted young athletes 8. comprehensive system of talent scouting and identification 9. challenging national competition system on local, regional and national level for all age-groups in junior elite sport (as for example the GDR Spartakiade) and its equivalent on international level 10. development of a well functioning system of sports medical care for all age- groups and research
－ 91 － 11. allocation of resources and funds available only to a selected number of sports which were considered to guarantee a high international performance standard to win medals in major international events
1. Definition of clear and challenging goals for the system as a whole as well as for its different elements based on a detailed analyses of the international as well as of the national state-of- the-art
To understand the development of GDR elite sport it is very important to know that there has always been a clearly defined political and sports political will among the reigning people to develop the elite sport as an effective social sub-system. Event in times of shortages and increasing economic problems this orientation was never generally changed. And as a second very important feature it was clear to everybody in power of the bodies in charge that this will also had to be put into practice. Elite sport always had a high reputation among the politically and economically reigning people and was privileged with respect to its developmental conditions. But on the other hand the results of the GDR elite athletes also proved that this investment really paid back, a situation that was not so typical in other fields of social development, economy and politics. From the very beginning the goals for GDR elite sport were clearly defined both by the government and by the sport organisation itself and comprised three major parts: · ranking among the best nations in the world both in winter and in summer sports with international top results in Olympic Games, World and European championships · a maximum contribution to the overall result of the socialist countries in these major international events to prove the superiority of the socialist model of society · to be superior to the elite sport of the Federal Republic of Germany in overall ranking as well as in the majority of the comparable sports as an expression of superiority not only in sports, but in general. This generally political and sports political orientation was accepted by all state bodies, non-governmental organisations, enterprises, sports clubs, sport schools and sport universities. Thus it became possible to get access to the resources required in many fields to develop a system that could cover up with these strategic goals. For
－ 92 － example the Minister for Education, the wife of the GDR head of the state, had to cooperate with the sport organisations with respect to the development of the sport schools, even though she did not like it in many cases. The Minister for Economic Development had to make decisions when new training and competition facilities were requested, often creating problems in other fields of economy because of the lack of an efficient economic system. The Minister for Health – even though it certainly sounds absurdly, became part of the decision process in the development of doping substances. The major goals of GDR elite sport were agreed upon in “4-Year-Elite-Sport- Decisions” covering one Olympic cycle. The decision, which can be understood as master plan for the development of the different parts of the whole elite sport system, was prepared together by the national sport organisation and its “Elite Sport Commission”, the State Secretariat for Physical Education and Sport, the Central Committee of the reigning communist party, several state departments as education, economy, construction works, armed forces, health. It had the character of a law within the sport organisation and was in operation for four years. It started with the definition of the major goal that always was a very challenging one. In a next step conclusions were drawn on what seemed to be necessary to fulfil the goal. One very good example is the overall goal for the Olympic cycle 1972-1976. It was the well defined political and sport political goal of the GDR to rank better than the USA in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. The political and sports political decision makers wanted to “beat the USA at their front door”. It was expected that the Games would get a huge media coverage in the USA, offering a very good chance to show the performance capacity of the small German country. The GDR sent 267 athletes to Montreal, compared to 394 US-Olympians. Finally the GDR athletes managed to win 40 gold medals compared to 34 Olympic titles for the USA. The GDR ranked second behind the USSR followed by the North Americans. The course and content of the second step of defining, designing and implementing all necessary practical measures to fulfil the major goal, of incorporating partner institutions and organisations was a very complex one. It could only become successful because of the general agreement and understanding of elite sport as a tool to demonstrate the superiority of the socialist society model. That was of top priority in general politics and for sport politics and consequently adequate structures had to be created. So it is no surprise that the development and promotion of sport
－ 93 － became part of GDR’s constitution and was never called into question. The “Youth Act” of 1950 created the legal basis for the promotion of all features of Sport in the GDR. With the presentation of core elements of GDR’s elite sport structure I intend to demonstrate what practical measures where implemented to put the challenging goals during the 40 years that the GDR existed into practice.
Today setting high and challenging goals belongs to the strategic approach in many countries. In the USOC the leading persons are convinced that they need these goals, as the CEO Jim Scherr explained: “We will continue to drive ourselves and set high goals. This (goal of 100 medals in Athens) was a stretch goal, but we said before the Games that if we didn’t reach it we will have failed, and that would teach us that we need to provide more resources or allocate them differently… That wasn’t a goal that we set by pulling a number out of the air. This is the capacity that we thought the athletes had, based on four years work with their national governing bodies.”
And consequently the USA Chef de Mission Herman Frazier quite demanded: “We want to win the medal count and the gold medal count.” And with respect to the next Olympics 2008 there clear understanding of the strategic task was, again expressed by CEO Jim Scherr: “If we don’t meet them head-on for the Beijing Games, they are going to be at the top for the next two, three, four or five Olympics after this.”
Similar to this high demand of the USOC officials from both Russia, China and also Japan, for example, clearly expressed their understanding of the role of their national elite sport on international level and their expectations with respect to Olympic titles and medals. Russia set the goal of leading the nations’ ranking by winning 36 to 39 Olympic titles, but did not succeed. The goals for Japan’s elite sport have been, as you all know, defined in the “JOC Gold Plan” in April 2001: to double the number of Japanese Olympic medals within a decade. Obviously this has been a really ambitious goal, requesting concentrated and well prepared actions, but the results in Athens showed that the goals were realistic. Even here it is interesting to note that it the JOC defined its goals on the basis and in correspondence with the “Basic Plan for the Promotion of
－ 94 － Sports (2001-2010)" of the Japanese government of 13 September 2000 making it a common effort of the state and the sport organisation. 2. Clear and strict management structures on national level (NOC, NGOs) as well as on the level of the sport associations for the preparation and implementation of necessary decisions with an unequivocal definition of duties, responsibilities and rights
With respect to the management structure and style I have to come back to the saying of the fencing coach Emil Beck. GDR’s elite sport had three basic principles: performance, performance, performance. Everything was adjusted to that principle - challenging goals to be successful in the international competition, clear benchmarking system for all participants in the system, clear and strict orders how to proceed etc. The consequences for the participants were also clear: In case of success they got awards, in case of failure open, hard analysis and - if the leaders so no chance of improving performance any longer – final showdown with the loss of the position as national team coach, national squad physician or head of a research group etc.
With respect to the management structure in GDR elite sport two major bodies have to be mentioned: the highest body of the national sports association DTSB, the bureau, and the national Elite Sport Commission with its corresponding 15 commissions on district level.
The bureau of the DTSB was composed of the ubiquitous president Ewald (who was DTSB president from 1961 until he resigned in 1988, and president of the NOC from 1973 until 1990) and the vice-presidents. Since this body was preparing all basic and important decisions in elite sport, often high-ranking officials of the Socialist Unity Party, of state departments, of the Sports Medical Service, of the Research Institute in Leipzig or of selected NGOs participated in the weekly meetings. The most important documents for DGR elite sport, the “Elite Sport Decisions” for the next Olympic cycle were always prepared by this body. Even though the decision officially was taken by the Political Bureau of the Socialist Unity Party the bureau with its
－ 95 － comprehensive knowledge of the state-of-affairs in international sport as well as of the situation at the grassroot of GDR sport had a tremendous influence of this “law of elite sport”. Here the extra-ordinary position and influence of the president, who also was a member of the very powerful Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party, has to be mentioned. The title of his autobiographic book quite well characterized his power and his authoritarian management style during hi long period of presidency: “I was the GDR sport.” Often normal democratic procedures were ignored by him as well as by other influential members of the Bureau. When the DTSB bureau met every week the first topic always was a critical survey of the results during major national and international events. As an initial comparison between the goals (any of the sport associations got detailed goals resp. benchmarks with respect to medals in junior and senior European and World championships as well as in Olympic Games) and the real outcome of the events this meeting set both the pace and direction for a more detailed analysing and the preparation of consequences for all persons concerned.
The Central Elite Sport Commission was founded in 1962 as a conference in elite sport that represented all contributing bodies. It had two working groups (science and technology) that had the task to support the work of the commission. Even here the DTSB-president held the chair. He was accompanied by his deputy being in charge of elite sport development, several ministers, the state secretary for physical culture and sport, the deputy of the department sport of the Central Committee of the reigning communist party, the directors of the Sport College and the research institute in Leipzig, and the Sports Medical Service. Also the chairmen of the powerful sport associations of the armed forces and the police forces and of selected elite sport clubs were members of that body. It met three to four times a year to make decisions on general topics of elite sport development, but also for the annual meetings with the presidents and general secretaries of the NGOs to analyse the results, problems and the progress made during the last 12 months. It was also very active in the preparation of the “Elite sport decisions”. The reason was that quite many of the consequences defined in these decisions could not be implemented without the consent and support of the major partners. If the DTSB wanted to change the system of sport schools the Minister of Education had to give her consent (Something that she not always was willing to do, for example stopping the intention of the DTSB to start talent scouting even earlier than in the 1st grade). For the
－ 96 － construction of new training facilities the minister concerned had to agree. The minister of finance had to agree from his point of view, in case the elite sport commission intended to significantly increase the number of coaches on one of the support levels or in the research institute. With the help of the Elite Sport Commission the vast majority of important plans and measures in the future and at present could be solved. There were similar commissions for all 15 districts of the GDR that dealt with developments in the region concerned.
3. Effective structures and organisations of coaches’ academic training and further education
In January 1950 the Political Bureau of the Socialist Unity Party signed a decision to “expand the sport school in Leipzig to become a central institute for physical exercises and sport with the task to train at least 400 p.e. teachers and coaches”. This decision was the starting point of the development of the German College for Physical Education and Sport (DHfK) in Leipzig which later should become the major institution for the academic training of coaches and sport scientists. Only nine months later, on October 22, 1950 the College was officially founded. Together with 14 scholars a total number of 96 students started their 2-years- academic training to become p.e. teachers. The internal structure of the college was made up of departments for social sciences and German language, pedagogy and psychology, sports medicine, research and coaches training. In the 1950 a huge campus was constructed for the newly founded Sports College including several sport specific training sites, teaching and research facilities. During the next decades the facilities of the College were completed step by step.
Fig.2: Facilities of the German College for Physical Education in Leipzig in the 1950s
－ 97 － With the increasing importance of elite sport in the GDR the content of the studies as well as the structure of the college changed several times to fulfil the tasks within the elite sport system. The topics became more and more diversified with respect to their contribution for elite sport problems. As a consequence in 1990 the internal structure of the DHfK comprised 38 sport and training methodological disciplines, 13 pedagogical and social disciplines as well as five biological and medical disciplines. At the end of the 1980s the college had a staff of about 1100 people. That made a really complex and interdisciplinary academic training and adequate research projects possible. Even though major research resources were transferred from the College in 1969 to the newly founded Research Institute it still was responsible for selected research topics, as for example talent scouting and junior elite sport. That created a well balanced synthesis between academic training and sport scientific training, to the benefit of both fields, but first of all to the benefit of the 4000 students that studied either in Leipzig or in one of the satellite branches. In 1975 a new statute of the College became the legal basis for all its activities. It made the College the “academic training and further education site of diploma sport teachers (the future coaches, managers and scientists) for all fields of physical education and sport in the GDR.” It also said that the College would become responsible for the training and further education of the medical specialist in sports medicine. But even though the College became responsible for all fields, the content and the organisational structure of the academic training were again stepwise adapted to the needs of elite sport, even though some other fields as sport for all were not kicked off the academic programme. During the four-years-studies at the College in Leipzig all students were trained in all the fields that they need to know when leaving the college ready to start working as a coach. The major focus was on trainings science in general and training methodology of the different Olympic sports the students specialized in. But the understanding of the coach was always a teacher, a skilled person in pedagogy and psychology too, who worked with young children, teenagers and adults. So the students also got a comprehensive training in these fields. The studies were a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical application. During practical course in sport clubs or local training centres, mostly in the sport they preferred and were specialized in, the student won their first experience in sport practice.
－ 98 － According to figures from the former deputy of the German Gymnastics and Sport Association, Roeder, about 4000 coaches graduating from the College were employed by the sport organisation.
In the GDR it was very popular and welcomed by the sport and state authorities if elite athletes, active as well as retired, underwent an academic training in sport science to become a coach. They knew elite sport training and competition, they had been or still were faced with all the needs, problems, they knew in what way coaches worked with their athletes, what partners they had at schools, in sport clubs and associations as well as at research institutions. And many of them were convinced that they could make it better than the way they had experienced in their active career. To adapt the conditions of an academic sport scientific training to advanced elite training a system of satellite branches of the Leipzig College was created for active elite athletes in the seven cities Rostock, Berlin, Magdeburg, Frankfurt/oder, Erfurt, Karl-Marx-Stadt 1 and Dresden after 1970. To complete the system and as an implementation of a decision of the “Elite Sport Decision 1977-1980” additional six consultation offices of the satellite branches were founded in Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Potsdam, Cottbus, Oberhof and Jena. That made it possible for elite athletes in all regions of the GDR to get an academic sport scientific training without being forced to be in Leipzig all the time. They were also allowed to expand their otherwise four-years-studies to five to seven years. 24 gold medal winners, 14 silver medal winners and 7 bronze medallists in the 1976 as well as in the 24 Olympic champions, 22 silver medallists and 10 bronze medal winners in the 1980 Games successfully graduated from these of correspondence studies with a diploma as sport teacher. Among these graduates were, to mention only a few, such famous athletes and coaches as the Admiral’s Cup winner in yachting and three times Olympic champion Jochen Schuemann, the successful German national team coach of the last 15 years in female scull rowing, Jutta Lau, or the new coach of Nils Schumann, the German 2000 Olympic champion in 800-m-running, Volker Beck. The College also became responsible for the organisation of the coaches further scientific training. All coaches in the junior and senior elite sport system were requested to regularly participate in such a course at the College, lasting eight weeks, to get acquainted with the latest findings in training methodology, sports medicine,
1 Karl-Marx-Stadt = Chemnitz, a city in the south of the GDR which was named after the communist historian. After the re-unification it got back its original name Chemnitz.
－ 99 － sport psychology and in other fields. And they were requested to prepare a written paper, often summarizing their training experience from the recent years. From its foundation until the end of 1989 13.773 direct or correspondence students graduated from the College, 538 doctoral and 89 habilitation theses were successfully defended. In 1989 a calculation of the costs for one student said that 48.488 Mark had to be spent per graduate. On December 11, 1990 the government of the federal state of Saxony decided to close the German College for Physical Education and Sport at the end of the year. Almost three years later a Faculty for Sport Science was established at the University of Leipzig with a total number of staffs of 90.
4. System of applied training science and research with an interdisciplinary sport-specific approach to the benefit of athletic performance as a link between theory and practice
During the 1960s there was quite a lively discussion on science as a productive factor for the further improvement of society in general, and for selected fields of social development. This also applied to sport and sport science. Step by step sport science was considered a “major driving force” for performance enhancement in elite sport. As a first step selected Olympic sport association founded “Scientific Centres” in 1965/1966 with the tasks to monitor the training and performance development and to enhance the further education of the junior and senior elite coaches. In addition they should initiate and executed research projects. At the end of the 1960s it became obvious that applied training science in a broad understanding could really play an important in the sport specific performance enhancement. As a consequence in 1969 the Research Institute for Physical Culture and Sport (FKS) was founded on the campus of the German College for Physical Culture and Sport (DHfK) in Leipzig. Before the DHfK “only” had an independent research department with about 70 staff members which turned out to be too limited to pursue the complex tasks in elite sport research. The FKS got the general task to optimize training programs in 18 Olympic sports. Most research was accomplished in inter-disciplinary composed research groups that were responsible for one sport, or in case of big sport, for one discipline group (as the jumps in track and field). The research groups consisted of 5 to 25 experts from
－ 100 － the fields of training science, computer application, biological sciences and sports medicine, physiology, biomechanics and engineering. In accordance with the major focus of their work several of these groups formed one of the seven research department. Such departments were founded both for different fields of sport specific training science (endurance, technical, strength and power as well as combat sports) and for selected scientific disciplines that could contribute to the solution of the research tasks (as sports medicine, biological science, computer science, biomechanics, pedagogics, psychology and sport politics).
Fig. 3 Main building of the Research Institute for Physical Education and Sport Leipzig in the 70s The scientific programme of the sport specific research groups – to which also the other research groups had to contribute – were made up of the following general tasks: 1. Performance prognostics for the 4-year-Olympic cycle by analyzing the international level of performance and developmental trends to identify the actual as well as the future performance structure 2. Definition of performance goals and selected aspects of the sport specific performance structure which were considered crucial for junior elite athletes to catch up in a certain period of their development 3. Development and regular improvement and refinement of sport specific training strategies and training programmes 4. Contributions to the further development of general training theory and methodology 5. Development of modern methods of complex sport specific performance diagnostics with the goal to improve training efficiency 6. Contribution to the development of new research methods, procedures and apparatuses
－ 101 － 7. Regular analysis of the international state-of-the-art in the scientific fields contributing to the development of performance in the sport concerned (for example with respect to altitude medicine in endurance sports or to motor learning in acrobatical sports)
Research Institute for Physical Education and Sport (FKS) - staff about 625
Training science Scientific disciplines and fields
Endurance Technical Informatics / Centre for Sports Sports Biomechanics Sportscient. Staff: 70 Staff: 40 Staff: 120 Information Staff: 50
Nord.Skiing Gymnastics Biathlon Diving Swimming Fig. skating T&F running
Strenght / Combat Sportsmedi- Pedagogics / Power Sports Sports cine / biol. Psychology / Staff: appr. Staff: appr. Sciences Politics 50 50 Staff: 130 Staff: 50
T&F throws Wrestling Biochemistry + jumps Boxing Weightlifting Judo Skijumping Fencing Physiology Cardiovascular
Physiology Nerve Muscle
Endocrinology
Fig. 4: Internal structure of the Research Institute for Physical Culture and Sport Leipzig at the end of the 1980s
－ 102 － Two more tasks of the research staff have to be focussed since they have always been of major interest for the development of elite sport in the GDR. The research teams were not only responsible for the implementation of developmental and research projects, they also were made responsible for the transfer into training practice. To do this, specialized groups were founded, so called “steering groups” designing and controlling training programs on the basis of the newly acquired findings. In these sport specific groups scientists and coaches closely worked together, and became real partners. A second task in this respect that the scientists of the Research Institute were incorporated was the academic coaches’ training and their regular further education. To give you an example of the basic concept for the work of a sport specific research group I will tell you the story of the development of GDR wrestling national teams in the 70s. In the beginning of the 70s the national freestyle team was quite weak compared to their international opponents. At the same time the Greco-Roman team had one two Olympic titles in Mexico-City in 1968. Consequently there was a real danger that freestyle wrestling would be eliminated from the list of supported sports in the GDR. There was only one chance, to convince the leading sport figures of the performance capacity of the freestylers by winning international titles and medals. In the GDR only 120 wrestlers trained and competed on elite level. In contrast there were more than 30.000 active wrestlers in the USSR and many very good wrestlers in other countries, as for example in the USA. The latter ones were extremely skilled in leg attacks, because of their national training and competition system. Based on comprehensive analysing work in the wrestling research group it became clear that special technical-tactical solutions had to be developed to overcome these wrestlers. The solutions should be non-traditional ones, surprising the opponents on the mat and should represent a realistic training approach. This became the basic insight to develop a training strategy adapted to the special conditions in the GDR. The wrestlers started a long-term programme with one focus on “technique-based strength abilities” with the final goal to transfer the new, higher strength potential into wrestling throws, mainly from the specialities of the Greco- Roman team, that means in standing position. The second focus was on an enhancement of wrestling specific endurance abilities to put the wrestlers into a position that they could execute their actions in the second phase of the match, after having “softened up” their opponents. All the coaches, athletes, physicians and training scientists understood that this would be a real chance to improve the
－ 103 － international results and that it might be the last chance for Freestyle wrestling to survive within the GDR elite sport system. After two years of concentrated preparation of the junior and the senior national freestyle team according to the new training programmes our harvest time started. Our international opponents got confused when they experienced surprising wrestling techniques on the mat, and that even in the final stage of the bout. Our wrestlers, for example, tried to avoid any parterre situation in bouts with American wrestles, but forced them into standing position. This allowed the execution of wrestling techniques which usually were executed by Greco-Roman wrestlers. The opponents should never know where they really had our wrestlers, what these GDR guys were preparing next. Between 1973 and 1979 the GDR freestyle team went home from European championships with 5 titles, 8 silver and 12 bronze medals. In World championships of the same period they won 2 titles, 8 silver and 7 bronze medals. The discussion on the elimination of freestyle wrestling had ceased long ago.
Fig. 5: Training tools for weightlifting and wrestling in the 1980s developed at the Research Institute for Physical Education and Sport Leipzig
The Research Institute was the central research organisation for elite sport research of the GDR. It cooperated with several other research institutions to implement their projects and also had the task to coordinate other research activities in elite sport which were executed in other academic institutions. So for example the German College for Physical Education and Sport in Leipzig was in charge of research in the team sports soccer, volleyball and handball as well as for flatwater canoeing and did research on all questions of junior elite sport and talent scouting. At the University of Jena a research team was dealing with the Olympic sports of bobsleigh and luge, in Berlin at the Humboldt University research projects on rowing were implemented. In addition at the specialised research institution for the development of modern training
－ 104 － and competition apparatuses in Berlin, a very successful research was implemented for example in canoeing, rowing, speed skating, lug, bobsleigh and ski jumping. The State Secretariat for Physical Education and Sport together with the Deputy of the DTSB in charge of the science and research were responsible to coordinate the organisation activities of the partners in .the different research projects. I also want to mention one more feature of GDR’s sport scientific system which was quite important. There was always a clear understanding that the acquisition of new knowledge from other research activities either within the borders of the GDR or from abroad was one of the cheapest and most effective investments. With an effective system of scientific information and documentation it was possible to gain new knowledge, to store it for several scientific purposes and to distribute the new knowledge quickly to the responsible scientists and coaches. This was the basic intention when the Centre for Scientific Information Physical Culture and Sport was established in the beginning of the 70s. Its major task was to collect any information available that could be to the benefit of GDR’s elite sport, to store the information in an effective electronic database system and to develop specialized means of information for scientists, coaches and responsible people in the sport associations that were adapted to their special working conditions. At this centre the central sport scientific database and document store was developed, maintained and managed. It contained almost all research reports, academic graduation works, coaches graduation papers from the further education system, observation reports from many major sport events, developmental plans for sport scientific activities, congress proceedings, the secret elite sport research journal “Theory and practice of elite sport” (published on a monthly basis) articles from GDR sport journals and from abroad and many more documents. Within a period of only 17 years a huge database of more than 100 000 documents was developed and made available to the partners in sport science and practice. As, for example, the first scientific information on the skating stride in cross-country skiing or on biomechanical research on the V-style in ski jumping appeared in foreign journals, the staff of the Centre immediately documented and send them to the biomechanists and coaches in charge of the national teams without any delay. Caused by shortages which sometimes where typical for the situation of the GDR in general this effective tool was developed and became an accepted and recognized part of the scientific activities in elite sport.
－ 105 －
Within the process of German re-unification two elite sport research facilities survived: the Research Institute for Training and Competition Apparatuses in Berlin and the Research Institute in Leipzig. Paragraph 39 of the „Unification Treaty“ says: Elite sport and its development will be promoted, as far as it has tested successful… The promotion is implemented according to existing rules and basic principles of the Federal Republic of Germany within the public budgets…Within this framework the Research Institute for Physical Culture and Sport (FKS) in Leipzig, the IOC accredited doping control laboratory in Kreischa and the Research and Development Institute for Sport Apparatuses (FES) in Berlin (East) will continue to exist in an appropriate legal form to that extend that is required or they will be attached to already existing facilities.
As one consequence of this decision in spring 1992 the Institute for Applied Training Science was founded in Leipzig. The main idea was to save the applied training research to the benefit of German junior and senior elite athletes. This intention is also reflected in the basic scientific approach of the Institute:
Deducted from this basic approach the main working tasks of the Institute were defined: · sport specific scientific counselling of training and competition · sports medical health and load tolerance diagnostics · technology development for measuring procedures for training and competition research · research in junior elite sport · basic research for future inter-disciplinary projects with applied studies · actual and prospective longitudinal studies based on complex databases. To guarantee that this approach also can be put into practice the internal structure of the Institute is made up of both sport specific research departments and of discipline
－ 106 － specific departments that closely cooperate with them in the implementation of research project in the individual sports.
Fig.6 : Internal structure of the Institute for Applied Fig. 6: One of the major facilities of the Insti - Training Science in Leipzig tute is the Ergometric Test center
But an analysis of the international situation of research facilities shows that such an approach and institution is not unique for Germany. To be here at the JISS today means to be in the heart and centre of Japanese applied research in junior and senior elite sport. The facility is great and opens up very interesting research and counselling opportunities for the athletes of your country. But we also know of the close links between applied research and advanced elite training that the research facilities at the Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs offer for a variety of sports, as for example for the swimmers in the excellent swimming flume. In Great Britain the English Institute of Sport was founded in the beginning of the new millennium, but already gave support to a total of 2000 elite athletes in 30 sports - and with much success in their preparation for Athens. The description of its mission reads as follows: The English Institute of Sport is at the forefront of the quiet revolution that will change the face of sport in this country. It is a nationwide network of world class support services, designed to foster the talents of our elite athletes.
And, of course, the research institute in Beijing has to be mentioned together with the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. Even though there are different organisational structures with either centralized facilities in Beijing, one central facility with several branches in different parts of the country as in Australia or with a distinct
－ 107 － orientation towards several regional scientific and research groups as in Great Britain, the main idea almost the same: to gain knowledge to the benefit of the athletes and their athletic performance. Today we regularly read of an elite research unit or institute under construction or already existing to be expanded. Obviously there is a common and increasing understanding that applied science directed towards training and competition is an effective tool to improve athletic performance, especially when aiming at the limits of human performance capacity.
Fig.6: Overview of research institute and facilities in junior and senior elite sport
－ 108 － 5. Development of scientifically based training systems created for the following groups of sports
· endurance sports (as biathlon, speed skating, cross-country skiing, swimming, canoeing, rowing or middle and long distance running in track and field) · strength and power sports (as weightlifting, throwing events in track and field, ski jumping or · combat sports (as wrestling, judo, boxing and fencing) · technico-acrobatical sports (as gymnastics, diving, figure skating or bobsleigh) · sport games (as soccer, volleyball, handball or ice hockey)
My comments on this topic will not deal with the content of the training in the different groups of sport, but with the approach which was behind the idea to identify these groups of sports and the practical consequences in the planning and control of elite sport training. In the 70s under the auspices of the central sport organisation DTSB a body was developed for the different groups of sports that was called “Working Group”. There were working groups for endurance sports, strength/power sports, technico- acrobatical sports, combat sports and sport games. Members of these groups were all national team coaches (for juniors as well as for seniors) the heads of the research groups of the Leipzig Institute, the heads of the scientific centres of the sport associations, the national team physicians and selected representatives of elite sport clubs (mainly the personal coaches of the top athletes) and officials from the training department of the DTSB. Any working group met on a regular basis, with at least four meetings per year. The main task of that group of high-ranking representatives of theory and practice was the discussion of major training topics. For example the “framework training plan” of any of the associations concerned was discussed in detail. That always were really hard and detailed discussions since there were so many perspective from which to look on the individual plan. Representatives from other sports and different scientific disciplines shared their experience and wanted to know why the plan was outlined in just that way. Simultaneously it became a good basis for the design of the individual training plans which became more important from year to year. Here also the applicability of new methods and basic training methodological trends were discussed. For example in the 1980s the so called “training on measuring units”
－ 109 － became a very important new direction in training. With only limited chance to further increase the training volume training scientists and coaches as well were looking for new training stimuli. Training efficiency should be increased significantly. One way was the development of a training strategy which gave access to immediate performance feedback. Certainly the swimming flume was the first solution in this respect, but step by step more of these units were developed. It was important that the development again focused on the sport specific performance structure. Bur simultaneously it was intended to develop a modular system with basic solutions that could be applied in several sports, at least for the group of sport concerned. One of the units developed was a hydraulic wrestling robot making it possible to measure performance values in training situations which were very close to the competition situation. The athletes as well as the coaches got immediate access to the values obtained. That became a very effective way of controlling the performance development. Often these units also became part of performance diagnostics (by the way another major topic of the “working groups”) Later the robot got a sophisticated electronic brain making the training still more effective. After the researchers had found the basic solution for the training task it was adapted to both several training task in one sport, but also to other sports with similar performance structure. Other measuring units with immediate feedback were developed for boxing, gymnastics, diving, track and field running, throwing and jumping events, for rowing and flatwater canoeing, to mention a couple of them.
A second major task of the working groups was the exchange of knowledge and experience in many fields of training. In case one sport had a pilot project in for
－ 110 － example altitude training the coaches of all sports could share the results, and even discuss them from their sport specific point of view. But sometimes there was one real problem. On the one hand side the working groups were searching for a transfer of knowledge and solution from one sport to another. But on the other hand any sport also had to secure its specific features with the specific solution just for this sport, with no or only limited potential for transfer. So it was not always so easy to make the officials from the DTSB understand that in combat sports the specifics of training partners with very good performance capacity as an indispensable part could not be transferred for example to a weightlifter, javelin thrower or runner. I will not finish this specific feature of GDR elite sport without stressing, that with all the differences in sport specific performance structure and the consequences for the long-term training process, it was very important that there was, based on the academic training at the Sport College in Leipzig that all the training scientists and coaches had graduated from, a common understanding on how to arrange and control training. The basic approach was, again, a very complex one in which individual factors as well as many inter-relations between them had to be understood and controlled. The following figure presents this understanding which still is a very important foundation for the work of the scientists at our Institute in Leipzig.
Fig. 7: Main content of the scientific research process as basis for training control
－ 111 － 6. Long-term approach of performance development both with respect to training content and effective solutions for the combination between school and academic education and advanced athletic training
The long-term developmental system for elite sport consisted of three different levels of training and support. On the first level about 70 000 girls and boys went on for regular training in so called local training centres three to five times a week. They were selected within the country-wide talent scouting system. After two to three years the most talented ones from the training centres qualified for the Children’s and Youth’ Sport Schools or became part of special apprenticeship programs. The sport programs on this second training and support level included about 12 000 female and male athletes. The third level comprising junior and senior national team members was made up of about 3500 athletes. Let’s have a closer look on just this highest level of training and support. 3rd level (hi 3.376 of 2.563 athletes left the
athletes in support
support system elite sport g
clubs hest)
2nd level of su
9.153 pupils Appr. 300 new at 25 Children’s and athletes Youth Sport Schools 79.560 athletes
and in elite sport p port
clubs
1st level of su
a total of 67.034 children and teenagers in 1.692 local training centres p port
appr. 26.000 children entered the support system
Fig. 9: The so called cadre-pyramide with figures from the years 1986 (adapted from Teichler & Reinartz, 1999)
－ 112 －
In the GDR it was considered crucial for the development of sport performance to create, as we would call it today, professional training and living conditions for the junior and senior elite athletes in the national teams. The athletes should be in the position to concentrate on their athletic training and the participation in competitions. To be able to grant adequate support all junior and senior national team members and those on the brink to those teams were treated within a four level system
Level A – athletes with the actual performance capacity to participate in Olympic Games, World and European Championships, mainly university graduates, skilled workers, some pupils, students and apprentices (appr. 250 athletes per year)
Level B - extended national team athletes, mainly pupils, students, apprentices (appr. 250 athletes per year)
Level C - junior elite athletes with performance capacity to compete in Junior World and European Championships, almost all of them being pupils, some apprentices (appr. 1000 athletes per year)
Level D – junior athletes in build-up training close to the transition into the phase of high performance training, mainly pupils (appr. 2000 athletes per year).
Any national sport federation had a strictly limited number of athletes who could become member of one of these cadre levels. The national sports association could apply for such a status when the amount of training and competition had reached such a level that it became impossible to learn at school or university with the same programme as the non-athletes or to fulfil the duties at work. According to their status these female and male athletes got individual support. In any of the elite sport clubs there was one deputy responsible for this topic. At the end of the 1980s about 3500 active athletes were part of this system. Every year about 25 per cent of the athletes left the support system, because they either did not perform on the level requested or they retired from elite sport.
－ 113 － The individual support could mean, for example, to get the permission for so called “school time stretching”, what meant to have more time to pass examination for university admission. Or it could mean that athletes were privileged in the admission for certain academic topics, for example p.e. teacher, coach or sport scientist. But there also have been Olympic Champions as the famous swimmer Roland Matthes or the 110—m-hurdle gold medal winner Thomas Munkelt, who successfully passed their academic training in medicine – but with an adapted study schedule allowing them to study longer than the other students. But one thing was common for all the athletes, they did not worry about their future school or academic training nor about if they would find a job that agreed with their high training volume and load. They were guaranteed a study, apprenticeship or job that corresponded to their general abilities. Tab.1. Number of level A- to D-athletes in Olympic sports 1984-1988 (Oppelt, 2004) NGO Total number Among them active athletes Track & field 705 645 Gymnastics 290 215 Rhythmic Gymnastics 50 35 Swimming 284 280 Diving 83 58 Cycling 215 190 Rowing 243 203 Canoeing 145 130 Yachting 124 114 Boxing 133 128 Wrestling 125 115 Fencing 65 60 Judo 55 50 Weightlifting 65 60 Soccer 453 428 Handball 271 246 Volleyball 138 128 Shooting 112 102 Nordic Skiing 88 78 Figure Skating 51 46 Speed Skating 103 93 Luge 36 31 Total number 3834 3369
The cadre athletes could also receive a certain amount of money. The basic principle was that their sports activities should not be to their disadvantage. So, for example, elite athletes who were forced to study longer to finish their academic training received the mean wage of a university graduate (at the end of the 1980s an amount of 600 Mark per month). Athletes who won medals in Olympic Games, World or European Championships received a monthly bonus of 50 to 500 Mark for a period of one to four years. In
－ 114 － addition athletes received one time financial grants reaching from 25 000 Mark for an Olympic gold medal in an individual event to 750 Mark for a sixth rank in a European Championship. With the general social presuppositions guaranteed by the state, and the training arrangements made within the sports and educational system, it became possible for the athletes and their coaches to really concentrate on their training tasks. In accordance with the so called “Long-term Performance buildup” and the loading norms for the specific sport training plans were designed and controlled for the different age-groups and performance capacities. According to Roeder (2004) the annual training volume for the athletes in the local training centres amounted to 300 to 500 hours in the third training year, depending on the sport. When entering the Children’s and Youth’ Sport School the volume increased significantly and amounted to 630 hour in flatwater canoeing 768 hours in swimming and 800 hours in cross-country skiing.
These training volumes were considered to be necessary because of the targeted 1.200 to 1.500 training hours per year.
It is often discussed if such support systems for a long-term development and training volume could be a general orientation in junior and senior elite sport, or if these high numbers in training volume only could be achieved under the conditions of the “closed GDR society”. Actual approaches both in Germany and in other countries tend to the acceptance of such an organisational and training system as general norm, or even pre-supposition. For example the researchers at our Institute developed the following, adapted model for the long-term performance buildup for the German Elite sport of today.
－ 115 － first junior-age indiv. top- training competitions performance
Training 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 years 11 12 13 14 15 16 . . . Junior training Elite training Phase of training BT BUT 1 AST ET 2
Talent scouting and Youth + Anschluss Elite Support level idenfication junior level - support support förderung junior elite sport school, partner universities, prof. school of elite sport training partners Support. Regional TC NTC, OTC, Armed Forces, structures Border Police, Support Found. Regional SA NGOs
Sportclub club
BT = basic training, BUT = build-up training, AST = transition training to high performance load; ET = elite training, TC = training centre, NTC = sport specific national training centre, OTC = multi-sport Olympic training centre, SA = sport association
Fig. 9: Structural model of long-term performance development It is also interesting to have a look on the results of a comprehensive analysis that researchers at the USOC recently did among USA Olympians. They found very similar developmental phases and figures of training load for the successive developmental phases.
26 26 24 24 22 22 20 20 18 18 16 16 Age (years)
Age (years) 14 14 12 12 10 10 First First First First First Made First Earned Made Made First First Made Firststarted Firstbegan Firstsuccess: Firstsuccess: Firstsuccess: Madejunior Firstsuccess: Earnedcollege MadeVarsity Madesenior Firstraced as Firstsuccess: MadeOlympic startedsport begancomp. success:local success:regionalsuccess:state juniorteam success:national collegesch.-shipVarsitycoll.team seniorteam racedsenior as success:Internat.Olympicteam sport comp. local? regional state team national sch.-ship coll.team team senior Internat. team Male 12.0 13.3 14.2 15.3 15.5 16.5 17.8 18.1 18.6 21.1 21.2 22.2 24.6 Male 12.0 13.3 14.2 15.3 15.5 16.5 17.8 18.1 18.6 21.1 21.2 22.2 24.6 Female 11.5 12.8 13.2 14.4 14.3 15.3 16.6 17.9 18.1 19.5 19.7 20.6 23.6 Female 11.5 12.8 13.2 ?14.4 14.3 15.3 16.6 17.9 18.1 19.5 19.7 20.6 23.6
－ 116 － Fig. 10: Training and performance milestones by age in female and male USA-Olympians (Gibbons, 2002)
1200
1000
800
Males 600 Females Training Volume (hours)
400
200
0 First started First began First First First Made junior First Earned Made Varsity Made senior First raced First Made success: success: success: success: college sch.- success: Olympic sport comp. team coll.team team as senior local regional state national ship Internat. team
Males 263 315 350 412 449 584 608 655 709 921 943 1021 1133 Females 253 312 334 420 446 682 599 665 660 910 926 976 1134
Fig. 11: Annual training volume of female and male USA-Olympians (Gibbons, 2002)
In this respect I finally also want to mention one aspect of the planned long-term performance build-up with very practical importance for the overall result in major international events. The athletes being part of the junior elite sport system represent the pipeline from which the NOCs and national sport federations can choose the members of future Olympic teams from. According to the experience at our Institute there should be 25 to 30 per cent of the members of an Olympic team who are first time Olympians. In case actual “renewal rate” is significantly lower it can cause real problems for the next Olympic team. So you can draw your own conclusions from the figures for the 2004 Olympic Games for the teams ranking first to sixth.
Tab.2: Mean age and renewal rate of the top six Olympic teams in Athens 2004
country nations’ ranking Ø age renewal rate
China 2 23.3 years 45.5 %
Australia 4 26.8 years 25.0 %
Russia 3 26.3 years 22.4 %
Japan 5 25.8 years 22.4 %
－ 117 － USA 1 27.0 years 17.9 %
Germany 6 27.1 years 13.4 % 7. Country-wide system of “Children’s and Youth Sport Schools” as the educational system for gifted young athletes
The idea of Children’s and Youth’ Sport Schools originated from the Soviet Union. It was adapted to the GDR conditions in the early 1950s when the first four schools opened their gates in Berlin, Brandenburg, Leipzig and Halberstadt. These pilot schools still were typical secondary or junior high schools with an extended sport offer on their schedule. In the next years the number of sport schools increased step by step to 23 until the end of 1959. Following a decision of the Socialist Unity Party of June 6, 1963 the goal and structure of the schools were changed and they became “specialized schools of junior athletes”. Training and school lessons were coordinated making two times training a day possible. To do it was tried to have only the athletes from one sport in one class, making coordination much easier. Coaches at the elite sport clubs, that now became closely linked to the schools, were made responsible for the content of the sports training, with the consequence that there were longer general p.e. lessons. The training content was determined and controlled by the long-term sport specific requests.
In case of training camps during the school year pupils either got home works from the teachers, or in selected cases teachers accompanied the pupils in the camps. To adapt the load at school to the increasing training volume in higher grades pupils could apply for an expansion of their school time by one or several years. That was possible for gymnasts, divers, swimmers and figure skaters already from the 8th to the 10th grade and for all other sports beginning with the 11th grade. Pupils who were members of national teams could have “individualized lessons” with one teacher only for them. This often happened just in the preparation phase for major international events when one training camp proceed the next, and only a limited number of days was available for school lessons.
From the beginning of the 70s the boarding part of the schools was expanded, making up about 50 per cent of all pupils.
－ 118 － In accordance with the differing high performance age in the individual sports the admission age to the schools did depend on the sport the girl or boy was training in. In technical-acrobatic sports even children from the first to the fourth grade were accepted while the majority of the pupils went to the schools from the 8th grade on.
Tab. 3: Sport specific admission grade for “Children’s and Youth’ Sport schools” admission grade Sport 1st grade figure skating 3rd grade female gymnastics rhythmic gymnastics 4th grade male gymnastics diving 5th grade female swimming 6th grade male swimming 7th grade track and field cross-country skiing biathlon soccer 8th grade all other sports
There was no right for the pupils to remain at the schools in case they had to retire because of injuries or illness, nor when their athletic performance did not make progress as planned. In those cases they had to leave the sport school to continue their education at another, “normal” school.
For example it was quite typical that our of 20 swimmers entering the school in the fifth or sixth grade only one finished the school after the 12th grade.
Leaving the sport school often caused problems, because the young pupils were considered loosers who failed with their sports aspirations. Other reasons for leaving the school were health problems. In 1983 a report said that about 85% of the pupils who left the sport schools did leave because of problems with the connective and support tissues, often a sign for not tolerating the load or for overtraining.
－ 119 － Tab.: 4: GDR sport schools with their numbers of sports and pupils Number of pupils Number of sports Altenberg 111 2
Berlin 1 586 7
Berlin 2 443 7 Berlin 3 321 4 Berlin 4 714 11 Cottbus 286 4 Dresden 735 11 Erfurt 510 5 Frankfurt/Oder 487 7 Halle 690 9 Jena 451 7 Karl-Marx-Stadt 1 455 6 Karl-Marx-Stadt 2 156 2 Klingenthal 135 2 Leipzig 1 650 8 Leipzig 2 451 8 Luckenwalde 124 2 Magdeburg 484 6 Neubrandenburg 162 2 Oberhof 304 2 Oberwiesenthal 149 3 Potsdam 592 6 Rostock 638 10 Schwerin 317 4 Zella-Mehlis 102 2 Total number 9654
Today in Germany the majority of the sport schools in the eastern part are still in operation but changed their international structure and the offer for specialized athletic training. Besides them step by step an increasing number of new “elite schools of sport” were founded in the western part, but these schools often are specialized classes for one or another sport run at normal junior high schools. There is no longer a national system of sport schools, because in the German constitution the federal states got the authority in the field of all educational matters. At the moment the pupils are offered a four to six hours a week specialized training as part of their schedule at most of these schools, often lead by their club coaches. There is also the chance for the very best juniors to apply for a stretched school time in some schools. At the moment 38 sport schools are officially recognized by the German Sport fedartion. They cover all Olympic sports.
－ 120 －
Tab. 5 : number of German sport schools offering programs for Olympic sports modern pentathlon 2 swimming 18 badminton 3 fencing 10 basketball 6 soccer 17 cycling 11 Alpine skiing 3 biathlon 4 Nordic skiing 8 Luge 5 handball 12 bobsleigh 2 lawn hockey 2 Rhythm.gymnastics 6 tennis 3 archery 1 judo 12 wrestling 6 canoe 8 rowing 9 track and field 21 Ice hockey 3 gymnastics 14 Figure skating 5 volleyball 10 speed skating 7 diving 5
My final remarks on this core element are a couple of figures and information which we found for sport schools in China and in Russia: In China about 300.000 children and teenagers learn at specialized sport schools, many of them in boarding schools. According to Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Matvienko in his country 3.000.000 pupils learn at 4.477 sport schools of different character. Not all of them really support junior elite sport, but they offer an extended school schedule for sport. In the Saratow region alone almost 55.000 pupils learn at 85 sport schools. Of special importance for the development of the Russian elite sport are the 35 sport schools of the “Olympic Reserves” where the top junior elite athletes are trained. I 8. Comprehensive system of talent scouting and identification
A country with only 17million inhabitants and 250.000 to 3000.000 children in each age group could not afford to miss any gifted child or teenager when it would have a real chance to compete with a population that was more than ten times so much as its own– that was the general consideration on the top-level of the GDR sport organisation. But even though many sport clubs offered sports activities in a big variety of sports there would never be a complete coverage in all the regions, in cities as well as in the countryside. The consequence was the development of the “Unified Scouting and Selection System” which went into operation in 1973. Before the system could start sport scientists carried out comprehensive research projects to determine the skills and abilities and body measures which could constitute a
－ 121 － normative system for the aptitude for certain sports in quite young age-groups. These research projects were part of the scientific activities at the German College for Physical Education in Leipzig. The first project in this field already started in 1965/19666 focussing on swimming. In 1970 the managing board of the DTSB decided to initiate talent research for all the sports that were promoted as part of the GDR elite sport system. The basic approach was to test all school children of the GDR three times during their school time for their aptitude and suitability for certain sports. This system was considered an addition to the traditional scouting methods of the individual sports associations. After an initial pilot test phase and in agreement with the Ministry for Education the tests were accomplished in the 1st and 3rd as well as in the 6th and 9th grade. The tests in the 1st grade aimed at identifying gifted children for gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, swimming and diving. The test focussed on certain values of body physique and on coordinative skills. The tests in the 3rd grade covered all sports. The intention was to test all pupils of that grade. That meant to test · 282.000 pupils in 1964 · 213.000 pupils in 1970 · 178.000 pupils in 1975 and · 241.000 pupils in 1980, only to illustrate the dimension of that measure. The test content was made up of values of body physique and the level of selected abilities (coordinative skills, conditioning etc.). In addition there was an evaluation of the biological age. The tests in the 6th grade aimed at identifying pupils who were retarded three years later, but had developed well in this period. The same basic pattern was the reason for the test in the 9th grade with special focus on body height to identify gifted youngsters for sports like rowing, volleyball, handball and throwing and jumping events in track and field. In addition the test personnel looked for especially small and lightweight pupils for sports like boxing, wrestling and weightlifting. The grassroot work was done by the p.e. teachers at the schools who did the tests and monitored the test data. In a second step all pupils fulfilling the normative values for one or several sports were invited to training sessions in the local training centres.
－ 122 － Here experience coaches made a second evaluation of the aptitude for a certain sport. This together with the results of a sports medical check by the Sports Medical Service formed the basis for a proposal to the parents for their child to start training in a certain sport. The system became an effective tool to identify gifted athletes for the local training centres. Already in 1974 with the help of the system 17.000 children started their training in the training centres. In the second training year in the local training centres the next level of the scouting system was applied to recommend gifted athletes to become pupils at the sport schools. To do this a combined method was applied incorporating competition results, test values and biological data (as the expected final body height) to draw conclusions on the probability of a further development of the performance capacity for any of the athletes. This level of the scouting system was based on comprehensive longitudinal research projects with an annual number of subjects around 20.000 athletes and was considered an effective tool for the national sports associations to identify their potential elite athletes of the future. What about the situation in talent search in the top countries in elite sport. It is known that Australia developed a sophisticated system in the 80s and 90s for children at the age of 12 and older. The program is divided into three phases Phase 1 School screening Phase 2 Sport-specific testing Phase 3 Talent development According to Australia’s National Talent Search Program coordinator, Dr Jason Gulbin, there have been several areas of growth in Australian talent detection programs, among them are:
· a move from broad-based screening to focused testing · younger athletes to older athletes
· novice athletes to experienced athletes · simple diagnostic to complex predictive models
· satisfying general needs of sports to responding to highly specific needs
· individual only sports to individual and team sports · systematic centralised testing to autonomous, decentralised testing.
－ 123 － The Australian project has been known for years and the outcome in sports like rowing and cycling are impressive. But a couple of weeks ago I got really surprised when I found a research report on the USOC website written by Gibbons & Hill (2004). One of their recommendations after analyzing the individual development of USA Olympians from 1984 to 1998 was:
In order to provide NGBs a more effective way of developing talented and motivated athletes it is recommended that the USOC convene a Talent Identification Summit for NGB coaches and program directors. At this summit, the knowledge of the most successful international and domestic talent identification programs could be shared.
It was really new for me that even the USA would turn their attention to that topic, on the one hand side it was surprising, but on the other hand it is a logical consequence of the general approach to fight for the top rank in the Olympic Games. As already mentioned before, a permanent flow in the pipeline of young and gifted athletes is requested for continuous international top results.
9. Challenging national competition system on local, regional and national level for several age-groups (as for example the GDR Spartakiade) and its equivalent on international level
On the national level every two years the central GDR Spartakiade represented the definite national highlight in the athletic career of any junior elite athlete. The athletes went either to Berlin or to Leipzig to participate in this multi-sport event. The first Spartakiade was organized already in 1954. In this initial phase the Spartakiade was considered a sport for all event for children only. First in 1964 the national sport organisation asked the reigning state bodies for the permission to arrange a new kind of Spartakiades which from now on should become a combination of · a mass sport event stimulating many children to go on for sport on a regular basis and · a performance test for the best junior elite athletes which simultaneously was applied for talent scouting and support. Even in this early period of the Spartakiades the GDR Prime Minister, Walter Ulbricht, understood this twofold direction of the Sparatakiade “as the best way to new success in the mass sport for the youth and in international championships as well as in Olympic Games” (Ulbricht, 1968).
－ 124 － In 1965 the new format of the Spartakiades attracted more than 1.8 million children on the county level and the first central competition had more than 12.000 participants in 23 sports.
Tab. 6: Participants in GDR-Spartakiades on county, district and national level 1980-1989 Participants on Participants on Participants on national level county level district level 1980 940.000 101.500 1981 973.000 11.200 1982 969.000 104.800 1983 997.000 11.400 1984 953.000 107.200 1985 988.00 11.500 1986 986.00 104.000 1987 979.000 11.800 1988 942.000 102.350 1989 920.000 12.320 (1.320 in winter and 11.000 in summer sports)
The XII national GDR Spartakiade was arranged in Berlin between 24-30 of August 1989. In this last national GDR junior elite competition about 11 000 female and male young athletes competed in 19 sports in 1.059 individual events. But the Spartakiade also changed its shape with respect to the content of the events. Especially for the younger age-groups that should concentrate their training efforts on basic skills general tests were introduced requesting the athletes to present general technical, coordinative and conditional skills and abilities with importance to their sport and their diversity in mastering comprehensive athletic tasks. The results of these tests were added to the “normal” competition results to honour the “real” Spartakiade champion. For example in speed skating the athletes had to show their performance level in skating a slalom or in skating backward, the wrestlers presented their skills in basic throws etc. But it was not only the tough competition that made the Spartakiade a special event. It was arranged like Mini Olympic Games with great ceremonies and a districts’ ranking both in any sport and as an overall ranking. And there was really a good media coverage for this event, presenting the junior heroes in the local, regional and national news papers and on TV. I have only glanced over the result book of the IX Children’s and Youth’ Spartakiade” that was arranged · in five winter sports from 21 to 26 February 1983 in Oberwiesenthal and Karl- Marx-Stadt and · in 19 summer sports from 25 to 31 July 1983 in Leipzig, Berlin and Rostock. The programme in the individual sports as well as the age-groups in which the athletes fought for gold, silver and bronze was adapted top the special needs of the
－ 125 － sport. While the majority of sports had competitions for the age-groups 13 to 18 years, in rhythmic gymnastics and in gymnastics for girls the rising stars were 9 to 13 years old while the male gymnasts held competitions between the age of 10 and 18. In swimming there were events for the age-groups from 10 years for girls and 11 years for boys up to 13 years for girls and 15 years for boys. In yachting the programme consisted of the classes Cadet and OK-Jolle for the younger athletes and first with 17 to 18 years the classes changed to the Olympic format Finn-Dinghi and 470er. It really turned out that this event was the showcase of GDR junior elite sport with many rising stars already showing their athletic potential. There are many examples for the slogan that “the participants and champions in the Spartakiade of today will be the Olympians and Olympic champions of tomorrow”. I want to give you some examples of participants in individual events in the 1983 Spartkiade:
Tab. 7: Examples of 1983 Spartakiade participants becoming successful Olympians Name sport Spartakiade age-group Olympic Games result result 1983 Frank Luck biathlon silver 8-km-race 15 Olympic gold 1994 Olympic gold 1998 Olympic silver 2002 Ingo Steuer figure skating gold pairs juniors Olympic bronze 1998 Sylke Otto luge gold single 13 Olympic gold 2002 Olaf Zinke speed skating 4 x gold 500 - 16 Olympic gold 1992 3000m Andreas Zuelow boxing gold 51 kg 17 Olympic gold 1988 Ronny Weller weight lifting gold 60 kg 13 Olympic bronze 1988 Olympic gold 1992 Olympic silver 1996 Olympic silver 2000 Udo Quellmalz judo gold 62 kg 15/16 Olympic bronze 1992 Olympic gold 1996 Torsten Gutsche flatwater canoe gold K1 – 14 Olympic gold 1992 1000m Olympic gold 1996 Ingo Spelly flatwater canoe gold C1 – 17/18 Olympic gold 1988 500/1000m Olympic silver 1992 Silke Renk track & field gold - javelin 15 Olympic gold 1992 Stephan Freigang track & field gold – 3/15km 15 Olympic bronze 1992 running Jens Herold track & field gold 1500-m 16/17 Olympic bronze 1988 Kathrin Neimke track & field bronze – shot 16/17 Olympic silver 1988 put Olympic bronze 1992 Birthe Siech rowing silver – 1- 13 Olympic gold1988 Olympic bronze 1992 Jana Sorgers rowing gold – 2x 15/16 Olympic gold 1988 Olympic gold 1996 Heike Friedrich swimming gold 50/100m 13 Olympic gold 1988 freestyle Manuela Stellmach swimming gold – 200-m- 13 Olympic gold 1988 freestyle Olympic bronze 1992 Patrick Kühl swimming gold – 400m- 15 Olympic silver 1988 medley Jan Hempel diving gold – 11 Olympic silver 1996 springboard/ Olympic bronze 2000
－ 126 － platform Dagmar Kersten gymnastics 3 gold 12 Olympic silver 1988 Ulrike Klotz gymnastics gold – floor 12 Olympic bronze 1988 Andreas Wecker gymnastics gold – multiple 13 Olympic silver 1988 event/rings Olympic silver 1992 Olympic gold 1996 Sven Tippelt gymnastics gold – floor 17/18 Olympic silver 1988 By the way Franziska van Almsick, who was the German swimming star of the last 12 years, won nine gold medals in the final Spartakiade showdown in 1989.
The “Youth Friendship Competitions” that were arranged with participants from Bulgaria, the GDR, the Czech Republic, North Korea, Cuba, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, the USSR and Hungary were another very interesting and important junior elite competition. When it was arranged for the first time under the description “Olympic Hopes” in 1965 only two sports were part of the programme, but step by step more sports were added. In 1989 these international junior elite competitions were arranged in 37 Olympic summer and winter sports. The competition was arranged as a single-sport event with all participating countries being the host according to a rotational principle (based on a four- to five-year-planning). This event was arranged for age-groups younger than juniors. It was one important step on the way to a participation in Junior European and World Championships. For the competitions the rules and regulations of the international sport federations were applied. It is also interesting to know that all hosts were obliged to arrange one competition-free day to give the participants the chance to see a little bit of the host region and to meet with athletes and officials from local sport clubs and bodies.
With respect to today’s situation in Germany there is no national multi-sport junior elite competition any longer. In some other countries such competitions are still arranged as the National City Games in China. This multi-sport event is arranged for athletes younger than 20 years in all the Olympic sports. In the 5th National City games 2003 in Changsha 7.000 athletes met in 29 sports and 320 individual events. Yang Zaihui, being in charge of the organisation, told journalists that the main goal of the 2003 event was “to identify future Olympians for the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing”. You certainly can understand that I was reminded of the GDR Spartakiade when reading this. And this feeling became still stronger when I read of the 2002 JOC Junior Olympic Cup as the “the pinnacle” of junior elite sport with the goal to support the athletic
－ 127 － development in this age-group and the preparation of high performance capacity among the junior elite athletes because they “hold the keys to the future”. The number of 9.591 participants in 19 sports in this great event also sounds very impressive.
10. Development of a well functioning system of sports medical care for all age-groups and applied medical research in elite sport
From the very beginning in the 1950s the government considered sports medicine an integral part of the sports structures in general. That meant that sport science was considered to be the “mother” science for sports medicine. As a consequence systematic measures were put into practice starting from a standpoint of supporting the development of sport with means and methods of sports medicine. With the foundation of a sports medical department at the German College for Physical Culture and Sport (DHfK) in Leipzig in October 1950 the heart of GDR sports medicine started to beat. One of the most important steps in the development of sports medicine was the recognition of sports medicine in 1963 as independent field of clinical medicine and, as a consequence, the introduction of the “medical specialist for Sports medicine” the same year with a five year specialized academic training to become a specialist in physical loading and performance capacity. This special training made the sport physician a really recognized partner of the sport scientists and the coaches. As a next step a countrywide network of sports medical counselling centres (the Sports Medical Service) was established in the 15 districts and 240 counties of the GDR. A couple of hospitals specialized in the treatment of injured and ill junior and senior elite athletes. At the end of the 1960s the Research Institute for Physical Culture and Sport (FKS) was founded, with one of the research departments dealing with biological and sports medical problems in elite sport. The general purpose with the foundation of that department was the creation of close links between applied training research and sports medical and physiological research as well as linking training research with training practice. In the meantime the Sports Medical Service had developed into an organisation with about 1700 staff members, among them 400 especially trained physicians. One of the major tasks of the sports medical service in elite sport was the co-operation with
－ 128 － the national teams and the elite sports clubs. To do this a network was established on several levels. The chief national team physician (there was a total of 18 chief national team physicians) cooperated with the physician being responsible for a discipline group (for example the middle and long distance runners) of the national team. The latter one again had close working contacts with the physicians working on the grass-root level in the sports clubs. The physicians in the sports clubs again had close links with the regional organisation of the Sports Medical Service in the 15 districts. Any sport school with more than 200 pupils also had specialized sport physicians available on a 24-hours-a-day service being responsible for the medical care and treatment for just these pupils. To give you an understanding of the everyday responsibilities I want to show you a list of working tasks for a squad physician: 1. Health care and treatment (basic check-up, diagnostics and therapy as well as rehabilitation training following injuries and illness) 2. Performance diagnostics with general and sport specific methods (under laboratory and field conditions, interpretation of the results together with other medical specialists and coaches) 3. Enhancement of load tolerance (physiotherapy, supplementation of vitamins and minerals) 4. Participation in the improvement of training methodology from his medical point of view. To be able to fulfil these tasks he closely cooperated with other physicians and medical experts within the framework of the Sports Medical Service. And he participated in regular conferences of the Commission for Sports Medicine of the national sports association to exchange professional ideas and knowledge with other squad physicians of the sport concerned and to discuss actual medical topics, problems and solutions to the benefit of his athletes. These conferences were also the place were he got “secret orders” with respect to the application of so called “supportive means” the camouflage term for doping means in the GDR. Part of the scientific activities of the Sports Medical Service was the participation in elite sport research projects which were considered to be of crucial importance to fulfil the athletics goals in one sport, in a group of sports or for the Olympic sports in general. There have always been selected research projects which gained special
－ 129 － attention by the Sports Medical Service that in this respect closely cooperated with the Research Institute in Leipzig. The topics changed as the development of elite sport and of applied elite sport research and the methods used for it made progress. The following list illustrates the applied character of the major research topics during all the years: · 1968-1975 Introduction of biochemical measuring values into performance diagnostics and loading respectively training control, as for example lactate · 1970-1975 Introduction of sport specific ergometry · 1972-1975 Introduction of methods for the determination of the biological age · 1976 Introduction of central computer-based monitoring of training breaks caused by injuries and illness based on training diaries · 1975-1980 Application of physioprophylaxis in accelerated recovery · 1980-1982 Introduction of arthromuscular diagnostics · 1985-1990 Focus on interdisciplinary research on the supportive and motor system.
11. Allocation of resources and funds only to a selected number of sports which were considered to have a high international performance capacity to win medals in major international events
The Olympic programme of the early 70s consisted of - 8 winter sports with 36 events and - 23 summer sports with 205 events. It became obvious that the GDR would not be in the position to support all these sports in an effective manner. The decision to concentrate elite sport development on selected Olympic sports was made for two main reasons: · economic difficulties making it impossible to have all necessary training facilities and conditions available in all Olympic sports (for example in aquatics and figure skating). · the total number of GDR inhabitants being limited to 17 Million. So this was the basic figure to select gifted young athletes from which would not be enough for the so called “cadre pyramid” of athletes. The tall boys should not “waste their time” with playing basketball without any chance to win an
－ 130 － international medal, but they where intended to become successful rowers. That was the death penalty for elite basketball, water polo, modern pentathlon or alpine skiing at the end of the 60s. This situation resulted in decisions to effectively support such Olympic sports in which many medals could be won by only a few athletes in Olympic Games as well as in European and World Championships. For example the choice had to be made between water-polo (with one Olympic event and 11 players in the team, and the best result of ranking sixth both in the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games) and swimming (with 29 events in the 1968 Olympic Games and chances to win not less than 53 Olympic medals, actually 10 GDR swimmers returned home from Mexico-City with 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal and from Munich four years later with 2 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze in their bags).
In winter sports, for example, the decision was made to efficiently promote figure skating and to drop ice-hockey from the list of sports for which an effective framework for elite sport was established after 1970. There was not longer a GDR championship in ice hockey with about 14 teams as before, only two elite teams survived the decision in the Premier League (both teams from the police and secret service sport organisation Dynamo, playing about 10 to 15 times against each other for the GDR championships), but the GDR remained among the top eight to ten teams in the world. But as a consequence of the decision the few skating rinks in the GDR were used for the figure skaters exclusively and the story of figure skating proves the consequences this concentration process. Between 1972 and 1989 GDR figure skaters as Katarina Witt, Annett Poetzsch or Jan Hoffmann belonged to the most successful ones on an international scale, winning more than 50 medals in international championships and Olympic Games.
Tab.8: Results of GDR figure skaters in international events between 1972 and 1989 Gold Silver Bronze Olympic Games 3 2 4 World Championships 10 13 10 European Championships 19 8 13
The situation today shows that an increasing number of NOCs feels forced to make similar decisions. On the one hand side the Olympic programme has been extended and is made up of
－ 131 － - 77 events in 13 winter sports (compared to 1972 the number of events has increased by more than 100 per cent). - 301 events in summer sports (compared to 1972 the number of events has increased by almost 50 per cent). Simultaneously the number of NOCs participating in the Olympic Games has increased tremendously in the last 30 years. And an increasing number of countries has the potential to win Olympic and World titles or medals. In Athens athletes from 57 countries returned home as Olympic champions and in Sydney four years ago athletes from 80 countries won an Olympic medal (the number for Athens is 75 countries). Thus the battle for an Olympic medal becomes harder and harder and requires optimum support systems for the preparation of international top performances. (ZITAT SCHERR / ROUSH) The consequence is that the NOCs concentrate their resources and funds in - sports with a long lasting national tradition - sports which have proved to produce international top results again and again - sports with adequate elite sport structures to guarantee a stable pipeline of new athletes to international top level.
Tab.9: . Number of events and particpating NOCs in Olympic Games since 1976 year number of events number of participating NOCs 1976 198 92 1980 203 80 1984 221 140 1988 237 159 1992 257 169 1996 271 197 2000 300 199 + 4 individual particpants 2004 301 201
As a consequence of these trends an increasing number of national Olympic committees is faced with the question what sports respectively which events should belong to the core system of national elite sport with an optimum support in all respect. In this respect it is really interesting to note that not only smaller countries, but almost all countries discuss this problem. So we found for the Olympic cycle 2000-2004 information for many countries that they do not feel in the position to create effective elite sport systems for all Olympic sports, but need to establish priorities in the support. USOC Sport Director Steve Roush said: “We have to set priorities in the allocation of funds, there is no space for dilution.
－ 132 － Tab .10. Examples for priorities in the support for sports in selected countries in the Olympic cycle 2000-2004 USA China Germany Japan Great Britain Priority swimming diving swimming, judo, swimming track and field 1 track and field table tennis equestrian, synchronized cycling gymnastics badminton track and field, swimming rowing shooting shooting, skiing, figure yachting weightlifting canoeing, skating, speed cycling, skating, short- hockey, track rowing, handball, fencing Priority wrestling track and field boxing, wrestling, canoeing, 2 equestrian swimming yachting, baseball, judo, team sports volleyball softball, soccer equestrian, (female),table gymnastics, track modern tennis, and field, pentathlon, triathlon, weightlifting shooting,. weight lifting Swimming diving gymnastics, triathlon, ice skating
The consequences of this trend seems to become a necessity for many NOCs, but for the national Olympic committees aiming at the top of the nation’s ranking in Olympic Games it also becomes important to guarantee a sufficient contribution of quite many sports to the overall result. The analysis of the results of the 2004 Olympic games in Athens illustrate that Top rankings in approximately 15 sports are required to rank first to sixth in the nation’s ranking. There is only one exception, Japan with its extraordinary result in judo, to this finding. The results in the Olympic core sports track and field, aquatics and gymnastics have a crucial influence on the overall result. Obviously this is also one reason for the development of the “Project 119” in China aiming at winning an increasing number of meals in the core sports as a presupposition for dominating the nation’s overall ranking. The stakeholders of the NOC of China several times underlined that the only three gold meals in track and field in swimming for their athletes in Athens will not be sufficient to give the USA a real fight in 2008. And in return the USOC Chief Executive Officer, Bill Scherr, explained on the final day of Athens, “ "We have to raise the level of support across the spectrum, but especially in key sports where the Chinese are doing well."
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Final remarks
In the final stage of the preparation of that paper I got the feeling that I had succeeded in summarizing with major core elements, but then I noticed that a couple of more elements of the elite sport system still were missing. I can only sum up them giving some more examples of the complexity of a system that perished at the end of the last century: · the elite sport clubs where “performance was made”, the table below illustrates the scope and the importance of these elite sport clubs Tab. 11: Number of sport branches and athletes in elite sport clubs of the GDR in 1986 (Teichler & Reinartz, 1999)
Sport club number number Sport club number number of sport of of sport of branches athletes branches athletes SC Berlin-Gruenau 4 260 SC Empor Rostock 8 590 TSC Berlin 11 798 SG Stralsund 1 12 SC Cottbus 4 352 SC Traktor Schwerin 4 391 SC Einheit Dresden 11 716 SC Motor Zella-Mehlis 4 206 SC Turbine Erfurt 5 465 ASK Vorwaerts 9 653 Frankfurt/O. SC Motor Jena 4 370 ASK Vorwaerts Oberhof 5 277 SG Wismut Gera 2 121 ASK Vorwaerts Potsdam 6 601 SC Chemie Halle 8 659 ASK Vorwaerts Rostock 2 97 SC Karl-Marx-Stadt 7 588 SC Dynamo Berlin 12 1.082 SC Traktor 4 203 SC Dynamo Hoppegarten 2 159 Oberwiesenthal SC Leipzig 8 577 SC Dynamo Klingenthal 3 140 SC DHfK Leipzig 8 766 SG Dynamo Luckenwalde 3 134 SC Magdeburg 6 529 SG Dynamo Potsdam 1 127 SC Neubrandenburg 3 186 SG Dynamo Zinnwald 2 128
In addition in the specialized elite soccer clubs 1.241 athletes were training.
· the central training centres, for example Berlin-Kienbaum with its unique facility sp simulate an altitude of 2000 to 4000m · the cooperation with the other Eastern-bloc countries · the political influence on the boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles · the relation between elite sport and sport for all in the GDR · the work of the coaches’ councils
－ 134 － You certainly can imagine that even these elements and features would be very interesting to refer to, but I have to come to an end with my presentation step by step. When the Olympic days of Athens turned to their end IOC-President Jacques Rogge summarized his impressions. He told all the international journalists that we experience “the real awakening of Asia. We saw the major progress in China, the extraordinary success of Japan, Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. There are many signs that the Asian countries will be at full strength four years from now in Beijing. Results from Athens indicate that new countries will take the lead in international sport. The naturally strong nations that dominate the scene now will have to work extremely hard in the future to maintain their ranking. For the IOC it is a really nice situation.”
The summarized results of the “continental Olympic teams” prove the president’s evaluation.
Tab. 12. Total results of the „continental teams“ (in brackets results 2000–1996) Gold medal Total number of % Medal Total number of % winning gold medals winning medals won countries won countries Europe 28 134 (168-150) 44.5 (56.0-55.4) 34 (39-35) 496 (505-455) 53.3 (54.8-53.8) Asia 10 69 (50-36) 22.9 (16.6-13.3) 15 (17-16) 166 (146-126) 17.8 (15.9-15.1) America 9 59 (57-62) 19.6 (19.0-22.9) 14 (14-12) 178 (179-176) 19.1 (19.5-21.0) Afrika 7 9 (8-12) 2.9 (2.6-4.4) 9 (8-12) 35 (28-32) 3.6 (3.0-3.8) Ozeania 2 20 (17-12) 6.6 (5.7-4.4) 2 (2-3) 55 (62-48) 5.9 (6.7-5.7)
And finally let’s have a look on the results in the nations’ ranking from the Olympic Games 1992 and 2004. For my topic today it is of special interest because the Barcelona Games were first without the participation of a GDR team since 1956.
In Barcelona the first 15 countries in this ranking list won 85.2 per cent of all gold medals, 12 years later they were only able to win 73.4 per cent of these medals. 12 of the countries from the 1992 ranking secured their top ranking even in Athens 2004. Besides the host country Greece only two newcomers appeared on the list: Ukraine and Japan. With the exceptional number of 16 gold medals, being 5.3 per cent of all gold medals awarded, Japan was the country with the biggest relative increase followed by China and Australia in this respect.
So I will close my paper today by congratulating your Olympic team to the great performance in Athens and wishing you and your athletes all the best for the preparation for Torino 2006 as well as for Beijing 2008.
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－ 136 － 1992 1 % 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2004 Trend 1 % 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1. EUN 45 17.5 37 30 25 22 14 17 19 1. USA ß 35 11.6 39 29 24 24 17 15 14 2. USA 37 14.4 34 36 19 25 22 17 14 2. CHN Ý 32 10.6 17 14 17 12 14 17 9 3. GER 33 12.8 21 28 19 26 18 23 8 3. RUS ß 27 9.0 27 38 19 18 11 11 13 4. CHN 16 6.2 22 16 12 11 5 7 12 4. AUS Ý 17 5.6 16 16 20 12 14 10 10 5. ESP 13 5.1 7 2 5 13 6 10 5 5. JPN Ý 16 5.3 9 12 6 13 6 6 8 6. CUB 12 4.7 6 11 7 7 10 5 6 6. GER ß 14 4.7 16 18 12 24 21 23 13 7. KOR 12 4.7 5 12 6 7 3 2 7 7. FRA Ý 11 3.7 9 13 9 20 11 16 8 8. HUN 11 4.3 12 7 5 11 9 11 6 8. ITA Ý 10 3.3 11 11 5 16 2 8 16 9. FRAU 8 3.1 5 16 18 21 9 11 2 9. KOR ß 10 3.3 11 11 5 16 2 8 16 10. AUS 7 2.7 9 11 5 11 6 8 8 10. GBR Ý 9 3.0 9 12 10 15 9 17 6 11. ITA 6 2.3 5 8 7 15 4 8 10 11. CUB ß 9 3.0 7 11 4 6 1 3 5 12. CAN 6 2.3 5 7 3 6 8 8 10 12. UKR Ý 9 3.0 5 9 7 19 9 10 9 13. GBR 5 1.9 3 12 5 12 15 11 8 13. HUN ß 8 2.7 6 3 8 8 6 5 4 14. ROM 4 1.6 6 8 16 12 7 9 5 14. ROM Ý 8 2.7 5 6 6 7 4 7 5 15. CSR 4 1.6 2 1 4 7 5 4 8 15. GRE Ý 6 2.0 6 4 3 11 7 10 13 Tab 13: Comparison of the nations’ ranking in the 1992 and 2004 Olympic Games
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