BWhen German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated kayaker Max Rendschmidt on Friday last week after his team’s gold medal in the 500-meter sprint in the four-man class in Paris, the exchange was – according to spectators – brief.

Rendschmidt, who is euphoric about his Olympic victory, used the meeting with Scholz to speak openly about the challenges he and his fellow athletes face, including budget cuts and poor training conditions. He told the chancellor that his colleagues do not want to be taken seriously just because they have achieved success.

“It is important that politicians are not just here because they are thinking about the next elections,” said Rendschmidt after the meeting.

The athlete’s depressed mood – despite his personal success – was also reflected elsewhere: The position of the German team in the medal table triggered self-reflection in him about how the country can get its performance back on track.

Germany finished tenth in the table, beaten not only by European heavyweights France, Great Britain and Italy, but also by its much smaller neighbor, the Netherlands.

Sports commentators claim that German sport is at a dead end and that there is no clarity about its future. Cuts in funding, short-term contracts for coaches who often prefer to go abroad, and burdensome bureaucracy are just some of the many difficulties.

Since German reunification in 1990, the medal haul of “Team D” has continuously declined.

Germany won 33 medals this year – 12 gold, 13 silver and 8 bronze – significantly fewer than the 82 medals its athletes won in Barcelona in 1992. In Athens 2004, the number dropped to 49, while in Tokyo 2021 it was 37 (including 10 gold medals).

Thomas Weikert of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) praised the overall performance of the German team and said that their goal of reaching at least tenth place in the medal table had been achieved.

The highlights of the German Games included the unexpected victory of the 3×3 basketball team, a flood of gold medals in the equestrian events, gold in the shot put and rhythmic gymnastics, the 400-meter swimming, rowing and triathlon, as well as successes in the kayak.

But the DOSB also openly admitted that it was dissatisfied with the result. Olaf Tabor, its “Chef de Mission” for Paris, said: “Many of the German team’s performances were outstanding, but we are self-critical enough to admit that we have had a very difficult path behind us … and that will continue,” he told Welt am Sonntag. “And we have been seeing a downward trend in the medal table for some time now.”

Tabor said reducing excessive bureaucracy, increasing state subsidies and establishing a national sports agency must be immediate goals for which the DOSB is expected to lobby.

A medium-term goal should be fifth place in the medal table, he said. It was unclear whether this also includes the 2028 LA Games.

In Germany, 28 million people are organized in about 86,000 sports clubs or associations, 10 million more than the entire population of the Netherlands, which performs better in the medal table than Germany. Why is the obvious German enthusiasm for sport not reflected in greater Olympic success?

Tabor said he believes the Netherlands’ position is due to the more efficient approach in the Netherlands of identifying talent early and then nurturing and supporting it.

He said of Germany: “We need to be more creative. Maybe our system was a bit too rigid… We need more flexibility and a tactic that is more tailored to specific sports.”

Ingo Froböse, professor of sports science at the University of Cologne, said success in core sports such as gymnastics, swimming and athletics had waned. The weaknesses were evident at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Hungary, when Germany failed to win a single medal.

Froböse believed that sporting success in Germany was no longer the status symbol it once was. The declining importance of sport was partly due to the school curriculum and the reduced emphasis on competition.

“Look at the athletes in America. They see sport, among other things, as an opportunity to improve their status in society … In Germany, this is simply no longer recognized.”

For some, the answer would be for Germany to host the Olympics itself, as Britain did in 2012. The British experience, commentators have noted, was credited with reforming the entire structure and funding of elite sport in the UK, the effects of which – Britain won the third highest number of medals in Paris – are still being felt today.

Scholz said during his recent visit to Paris: “I hope this will be a bit contagious.”

After months of internal discussions, the German government recently signed and submitted a letter of intent to host the Games, paving the way for a bid for 2040, an event that could coincide well with the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of German reunification.

The outgoing President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, is German and said: “I would be extremely happy if the Olympic spark would also spread to Germany.”