Sport In Germany: Football, The Olympics And A Doping Scandal | Meet The Germans

are you ready for a meet the germans

workout today is all about sports in

germany so let's kick things off with

the nation's all-time favorite

football the german bundesliga is a

multi-billion euro industry and its

games have the highest attendance rate

in europe having traveled to a lot of

places around the world with a german

intel i've often been amazed at how the

language barrier can be broken simply

with the words buy in munich

football came to germany from england

you're welcome in the late 1800s it

wasn't an immediate hit with everyone

some labelled it an englisher crankkit

english disease but soon enough the

beautiful game got a beautiful german

rulebook and a governing body

in the 1930s the nazis employed their

common trick of using popular culture

for propaganda and slapping the word

rich on the front of it in this case

fusball

later the sport would be seen as part of

west germany's economic turnaround the

1954 world cup winning team was seen as

the embodiment of hard work team spirit

and discipline the german men's team has

now won three european titles and four

world cups

but enough about the men did you know

that women were banned from club

football in germany until 1970. germany

was invited to attend the unofficial

women's world cup in taiwan in 1981 but

the football association still hadn't

bothered to make a national team so they

sent the reigning club champions from

the small city of bergeba can you see

what's coming yep they won a national

team was finally formed and in 1989 they

won their first official european title

but even then because they still had

amateur status instead of prize money

the team got

a set of coffee cups now the women's

team is the second most successful in

the world after the usa let's meet one

of germany's up-and-coming talents

often football plaza

just as important as the players are the

fans german clubs even have a rule that

members must be the majority

stakeholders it's about time we gave

some different sports a look in other

popular spectator sports in germany

include handball ice hockey ski jumping

and biathlon

leicester

performance sport is all about well

performance there's a focus on regular

training and on winning

gaiden sport math sport is more about

keeping fair and having fun

so how do germans like to get their

sweat on you should be basketball no

fire had fun skateboarding no food spot

houston who's buyer basketball each

machine food spa royal shoe and

basketball an elena

is an acrobatic and yoga remix

around a third of all germans are

members of a sport foreign or sports

club which organizes training

competitions and social events the

concept can be traced back to the 19th

century and this guy friedrich ludwigian

better known as tuanfatayan the father

of gymnastics he invented new equipment

like the horse and the beam and he

believed that physical fitness could

inspire nationalism pride and unity

among german youth in french occupied

pressure

and how active are young germans today i

was actually pretty surprised at how few

extracurricular sports are offered at

schools and there aren't many

competitions between schools either the

world health organization actually says

that 88 percent of girls and 80 percent

of boys get too little physical activity

here

right now we're at the deutsche sport

it's europe's largest sports university

with some 6 000 students from around 60

countries it also has a legendary

entrance exam where applicants have to

pass physical tests in 19 out of 20

disciplines including diving in order to

get in

germany has hosted the summer olympics

twice unfortunately neither is a happy

memory the first was in 1936 in berlin

now known as the nazi olympics and the

second was in 1972 in munich when 11

israeli athletes and coaches and a

german police officer were killed by

members of a palestinian terrorist group

interestingly even after the end of

world war ii east and west germany still

competed together in several olympic

games but once east germany started

sending its own teams the ruling sed

party decided to use sport to boost its

popularity at home and its reputation

abroad from 1968 to 1988 east germany

took home more than twice as many

olympic medals as west germany despite

having less than a third of the number

of inhabitants apart from with hard

training and talent scouting how did

they do it

doping

to be specific with one of if not the

biggest state-sponsored doping programs

in sporting history

an incredible 10 to 15 000 athletes

mostly underage are thought to have been

doped by coaches and team doctors from

the mid-60s onwards a lot of them were

unaware of the doping the use of

anabolic steroids and growth hormones

meant some female athletes developed

male characteristics many athletes would

later suffer from depression eating

disorders and premature death

germany tends to rank in the top 10 on

the medals table in the summer olympics

some top disciplines are canoeing rowing

and equestrian events however the winter

olympics are where germany really shines

in 2022 in beijing germany came second

in the medals table after norway

excelled in sports like bobsled luge and

skeleton the country also has a great

track record in ski jumping and

cross-country skiing germany does after

all have its fair share of snow in the

alpine regions and it boasts four of the

world's 17 international competition ice

runs

so what do you think of germany's

sporting performance and have you got

any german sporting heroes leave us a

comment

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