Institute of Sports Science

ARD Forum Sport

4th ARD Forum Sport – Integration in and through sports

12.10.2016 – On 12th October, a top-class discussion panel met during the 4th edition of the “ARD Forum Sport” in the facilities of the German broadcaster BR. After the broadcaster NDR had hosted the 2015 event in Hamburg, representatives from various fields, such as sports, politics, media and science, met again in Munich, where the event was already hosted in 2013 and 2014.

The panel discussion was organized by the Sport Coordination Department of the broadcaster ARD in close collaboration with team members from the Department Sport Economics, Sport Management and Media Research (University of Tübingen) and students from the Bachelor program “Sports Journalism”. The focus of this year’s event, entitled “Reaching the podium by overcoming obstacles”, was integration in and through sports by emphasizing the special role of refugees and disabled athletes. After a welcome speech delivered by the ARD Program Director, Volker Herres, TV moderator Gerhard Delling chaired the panel discussion.

DFB Vice President Eugen Gehlenborg (l.) and DFB Team Manager Oliver Bierhoff (center) explain the federation’s integration campaigns and policies.
Thorsten Storm, Managing Director of THW Kiel (2nd f.l.), and Georg Clarke, Vice President of the German Handball Federation (DHB) (r.), in discussion with publicist and philosopher Wolfram Eilenberger (2nd f.r.).
Paralympics medalists Kirsten Bruhn, Anna Schaffelhuber and Edina Müller and former gymnast Ronny Ziesmar (from left to right) talk about the everyday life of disabled people in Germany.
Long jumper Markus Rhemn in discussion with Dr. Clemens Prokop, President of the German Athletic Federation, and Friedhelm Julius Beucher, President of the German National Paralympic Committee (from left to right).

“When you have fun doing sports, you forget about who you are” noted Oliver Bierhoff, Team Manager of the men’s German national team, to illustrate the integrative power of football. Together with Eugen Gehlenborg, Vice President of the German Football Federation (DFB) responsible for social and societal policy, he further highlighted different integration measures by the clubs. In addition, Gehlenborg gave an overview about the federation’s campaigns on integration.

Football, however, is not the only example for successful integration in and through sports. For instance, Artem Harutyunyan, bronze medalist in boxing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, noted that sports in general have great integrative power. By providing boxing lessons on a voluntary basis he tries to help integrating refugees into society. According to publicist and philosopher Wolfram Eilenberger, other sports like handball, volleyball or hockey are lagging behind in this regard. This, however, is largely caused by differences with regard to the sports’ popularity in other countries and financial constraints as argued by Thorsten Storm, Managing Director of THW Kiel, and Georg Clarke, Vice President of the German Handball Federation (DHB) responsible for issues related to youth, schools and education.

Breschkai Ferhad, the former integration commissioner of Berlin’s football federation, opened the discussion by asking “why can’t refugees just participate in sports clubs without a specific program?”. She also called for a sophisticated understanding of individuals in order to get rid of stereotypes related to refugees or Muslims. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Braun from the Humboldt University in Berlin emphasized the necessity to distinguish between integration in and integration through sports in this discussion. Both agreed that the biggest challenge concerning integration is social inequality.

The second part of the panel discussion focused on adaptive elite sports and started with a large group of panelists including the Paralympics medalists Kirsten Bruhn (swimming), Anna Schaffelhuber (monoski) and Edina Müller (wheelchair basketball/paracanoe) as well as former gymnast Ronny Ziesmer. “Many things have changed in the daily life of disabled people, but there is still a lot of work to do”, described Bruhn the current situation in Germany and emphasized an approach of thinking without barriers. The national wheelchair basketball players Laura Fürst and Sebastian Magenheim provided insights into a sport, in which integration and inclusion is already perfectly implemented. “Our greatest advantage is, that we have no problems in finding young talents”, explained Magenheim. He proposed to open the Paralympics also for non-disabled wheelchair basketball players.

Jörg Frischmann, Managing Director of TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, explained structures that help to better integrate disabled athletes. “In the minds of our club members it does not make any difference whether you are disabled or not” Franziska Liebhardt (shot putter) summarized the success of Bayer Leverkusen’s approach. Later Gerhard Delling discussed together with Markus Rehm, long jumper who won the German Championships in 2014, the controversy caused by his success as disabled athlete. Rehm mentioned that, despite his efforts to start at the Olympic Games 2016, he felt just fine as a Paralympic athlete. In this regard, Friedhelm Julius Beucher, President of the German National Paralympic Committee, referred to Rehm as role model in adaptive sports because he “fights against barriers in minds.” Beucher also stressed the fact that Paralympic and Olympic sports still differ in terms of promotion, and that harmonizing medal bonus payments is only a first step in the right direction. After all, it is not about the disability, but about respect. Respect for a person and its performance.

The report on the 3rd ARD Forum Sport can be read here.

The report on the 2nd ARD Forum Sport can be read here.