Rahmenbedingungen männlichen Gerätturnens im deutschen Spitzensportsystem: Disziplinspezifische Anmerkungen zur nationalen Debatte

In German sports science, the national elite sport promotion system is a steady topic of discussions. The federal government and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) expect new impetus of the reformed elite sport system in the areas of, inter alia, young athlete promotion, scientific support, and the coaches’ situation in German elite sport. The present article is a discipline-specific approach to these three issues for men’s artistic gymnastics. The first author served in various functions in German gymnastics (former squad athlete, young athletes‘ coach, academic teaching) for several years and is familiar with essential problems due to close communication with gymnasts, coaches, scientists, and officials. The purpose of this article is to point out specific challenges in men’s artistic gymnastics in view of the present debate on the German elite sport promotion system. This is intended to stimulate further discussions on solution approaches concerning the common exploitation of potentials.