June, 2004 - Nr. 6
German Youth Train for the Olympics
TWIG - The German government last Friday honored the winners of a nationwide sports contest called "Youth train for Olympia." With 900,000 participants, it is the largest school-age competition of its kind in the world.
"‘Youth train for Olympia’ motivates children and young people to participate in sports outside of school and is an ideal program for our continuing search for sports talent," Goettrik Wewer, a state secretary in Germany’s Interior Ministry, said at a ceremony in Berlin.
The program allows young people in four different age groups to compete nationally in badminton, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, track and field, rowing, swimming, skiing, tennis, ping-pong, volleyball, and beach volleyball - the newest sports trend in Germany.
"Youth train for Olympia" also cooperates with the committee that is seeking to bring the Olympics to the eastern German city of Leipzig in 2012. Helping to raise the international profile of German athletes, Germany’s rising young sports talents serve as youth ambassadors for the German bid.
In the 30 years since the program first took place, more than 11 million children have taken part in the program, among them sports amateurs that later became stars, including tennis star Boris Becker, and track talents Frank Busemann, and Heike Henkel.
Republished with permission from "The Week in Germany"
