Paris 2024: Why Germany’s low medal haul isn’t surprising

One of the major reasons why Germany did so poorly at the Paris Olympics is a row over funding.  
Most elite German athletes receive financial support from the Deutsche Sporthilfe foundation. The non-profit organization supports around 4,000 athletes each year, depending on their performance, status and potential. On average, it pays out between €300 ($331) and €800 ($882) to an athlete monthly, but only to athletes competing in Olympic and Paralympic sports who are currently nominated for a national team, and selected athletes from non-Olympic sports.
For years, the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) alone decided where the approved funding for elite sport would go. This changed in 2016 when the “Potential Analysis System” was introduced. This links the funding of individual sports to their assumed prospects of success.
This was meant to ensure consistent top-5 placings in the Summer Olympics medal table in the long term. Meanwhile, a planned independent sports agency, which would unite the management and financial support of elite sport under one roof has sparked a power struggle between the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the Interior Ministry, which is responsible for sport.
The idea is for committees including representatives of the federal and state governments as well as sports organizations to decide independently on the distribution of funding. However, the federal Interior Ministry insists on having the final say on funding – as the revenue comes from the taxpayers. The DOSB has criticized this as “shackles imposed by the federal government.”
It is simply impossible for an athlete to live on what they get from the Deutsche Sporthilfe alone. That’s why other means of funding are needed. One way is through certain federally funded jobs, like the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), the police or customs agency.
In the Bundeswehr, after basic training, elite athletes are free to concentrate fully on their sport – earning a fixed salary – with the added guarantee that they will not be called up in the event of war.
It is therefore hardly surprising that more than a third of the German team at the 2024 Olympic Games were “sports soldiers” from the Bundeswehr.
With a total of 20 medals, these athletes accounted for more than 60% of Germany’s medal haul in Paris. The problem is that such programs are only available to those who already belong to a national squad and have had a certain level of sporting success.
The USA dominates elite sports and many German athletes have moved Stateside to train. Decathlete Leo Neugebauer, who won silver in Paris, is among them, as is European sprint champion Gina Lückenkemper, bronze medallist with the German women’s 4×100-meter relay team.
Above all, the compatibility of education or a career with sport is a top priority in the United States – unlike in Germany.
“In college, you have the advantage of being able to combine university and sport really well,” Neugebauer recently told public broadcaster NDR. For elite athletes there are no tuition fees, outstanding training conditions, free accommodation and even a small salary. Neugebauer’s university invests around €200 million annually in its sports programs.
The €300 million that Germany’s Interior Ministry invests in all of German sport annually seems downright tiny by comparison.
A study commissioned by Deutsche Sporthilfe in 2021 confirmed the concerns of athletes. Thirty-five percent of those surveyed stated that their financial situation “did not allow them to concentrate sufficiently on sport.”
Lückenkemper also criticized the fact that there is “no real support system in Germany, but rather a reward system.”
On Instagram, the sprinter wrote: “Those who have already reached the top are supported. How do they get there…?”
The Netherlands, which has a much smaller population than Germany, finished in sixth place in the Paris 2024 medals table, four places above its neighbour to the east. The Dutch recipe for success: centralization. In Papendal, the largest of the country’s four elite sports centers, 400 athletes from 12 sports federations train every day.
In Germany, on the other hand, the athletes work in training centers spread across the country. The Dutch sports centers also allow international competition during training, whereas such international training groups are not welcome in the German sports development system.
While gold medalists from Hong Kong, for example, receive almost €700,000, and the Philippines shower their champions with valuable gifts, German Olympic champions have to make do with a bonus of €20,000. In many cases, more than half of this is swallowed up by tax.
The gold bonus in Germany is far too low, says former track cyclist Kristina Vogel.
“I demand €1 million for Olympic champions, tax-free,” the 33-year-old told the mass-circulation Bild daily. “This would be very appealing and would set you up for longer. And it would mean that you could become a millionaire with an Olympic victory.”
Another problem for some athletes is that Deutsche Sporthilfe only rewards multiple gold medals for an Olympic event once.
“Double gold performances don’t count in Germany,” Olympic kayaking champion Max Rendschmidt told the media company Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
The German canoeists, who won six medals in Paris – two gold, two silver and two bronze – in contrast to athletes in other sports, were particularly vocal in their criticism of sports funding. Their statements caused such a stir that the German government felt it had to issue a public response.
“It is clear that sport is an important part of our social coexistence – this applies equally to mass and competitive sport. Promoting sport and therefore athletes is important to the federal government,” a government spokesperson announced.
Tom Liebscher-Lucz, a member of the gold quad and Rendschmidt’s partner in the two-man kayak, spoke for several minutes to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the sidelines of the Stade Nautique in Vaires-sur-Marne during the Olympics. The main topics of discussion are said to have been the cancellation of funding and the difficult training conditions in Germany.
Liebscher-Lucz later said that he would like to see the chancellor “not only at the Olympics, but also at a World Championship or German Championship. Instead, we continue to get our money cut when we celebrate successes.”
With regard to Scholz’s visit, Rendschmidt added: “It’s not important that politicians are only here for the next election result.
“He should instead make decisions for the good of sport. People always discover their love of sport when medals are won.”
This article was originally published in German.