02.06.2025
"DHM at home" – German University Championships in Artistic Gymnastics in Tübingen
The Tübingen gymnasts hosted a spectacular gymnastics festival in the Paul Horn Arena.
On June 20 and 21, the German University Championships in Gymnastics (DHM) took place for the first time in beautiful Tübingen at the Paul Horn Arena. Despite the bright sunshine, the Paul Horn Arena was packed all weekend with around 650 participants, some of whom took part in the competition themselves, while others cheered loudly for their university colleagues from the stands. For the Tübingen team, the home DHM came with an unusual double burden: the 32 gymnasts had to work together with a highly motivated team of helpers to organize the championships – from selling sandwiches to entering the competition results into the computer system.
A shower of medals for the home teams
There was no sign of this burden on the competition floor. In the team competition, the Tübingen gymnastics team secured second place in both the women's and men's events with impressive performances. They were only beaten by the extremely strong teams from Cologne and Stuttgart, who, according to their own statements, “used a sledgehammer to crack a nut” with their team line-up. A particular highlight of the competition day was that Tübingen's DHM rookie Alexander Kirchner managed to escape Stuttgart's artillery fire in the individual all-around competition and took the top spot on the podium for the best six-event competitors. With the second DHM team coming in 13th place and taking 9th place in the adh Cup on Saturday morning, the Tübingen women once again demonstrated their class and the popularity of competitive gymnastics in Tübingen.
On Saturday evening, the highlight of the DHM took place: the apparatus finals, in which the six best DHM competitors on each apparatus competed for the respective university championship titles in front of 1,200 enthusiastic spectators. The combination of student exuberance and gymnastics at the highest international level even attracted gymnasts from the Austrian national team in Innsbruck to the Paul Horn Arena. Even in this high-caliber field of participants, some Tübingen gymnasts were able to celebrate their final performances in front of their home crowd and took home medals: Lisa Dauth (6th place on the uneven bars), Viola Wurster (4th place on the vault), Laura Dick (3rd place on vault), Kathrin Scheck (2nd place on floor), and Alexander Kirchner (5th place on floor, 1st place on pommel horse, 2nd place on rings, 3rd place on parallel bars, and 5th place on high bar).
The DHM concluded with the fifth respective seventh exercise – a joint party for all participants, where the athletes celebrated and danced until the early hours of the morning and beyond before finally stumbling home. In addition to their successes on the competition floor, the Tübingen gymnastics team also raised a toast to the successful and smooth organization of the DHM. “That was the best DHM ever!” Laura Dick aptly summed up.
In particular, we would like to thank Ingrid Arzberger and Dr. Dennis Murr from the University of Tübingen, as well as the organizing team and all the helpers – without their commitment, this great event would not have been possible.
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