Soldier-Athletes Lead Germany to Medals

The German army spends 25 million euros ($30 million) per year on sports training and it certainly seems to be getting its money's worth.

When Sylke Otto, Silke Kraushaar and Tatjana Hüfner won gold, silver and bronze in the luge competition last week, the victory was theirs -- and the German army's. Ditto for Kati Wilhelm, who took a gold in biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting), Andre Lang, who won a gold medal in the two-man bobsled, and the women's cross-country ski team, which got a silver medal.

All of these athletes were competing for Germany -- but also for the German army, or Bundeswehr. They are all soldiers in the athletics-training department of the army where they prepared for the Turin games.

'Just one responsibility: training'

A total of 72 Bundeswehr athletes are competing in Turin. That's nearly half of Germany's 161-person team. Petty Officer Uwe Witte, a trainer in the German army's athletics-training division in the town of Warendorf said there's a reason why the Bundeswehr program is so successful.

"All their (the athletes') other responsibilities -- school, family, household -- disappear. Here they can concentrate entirely on their sport. Of course, if you look at their schedule, there is not a lot of extra time to take care of other things."

The army has 22 sports-training departments across Germany. Altogether, they support 744 athletes in 70 different sports. Such specialized athletics departments arose out of a decision the German parliament made in 1968 to promote sports in the country and to primarily rope in the army for that purpose.

Georg Remmert, who is temporarily in charge of the Warendorf athletics-training department, said the training programs work both ways.

"We are mostly here for the people who can't finance their training themselves. In other words, the army is a kind of social net," he said. "It gives the athletes the security to be able to pursue their sport to such a degree of excellence. In turn it shows the Bundeswehr and Germany in a good light internationally."

But only those who are already very accomplished athletes can be sponsored. All those who have already made it to the national squad in their sport can apply. In other words, the athletes are already very successful when they they are accepted into the army's program.

They are then assigned a trainer and are also meant to start following a normal soldier's basic training. Later, they only need to fulfill 30 percent of a soldier's normal duties; the other 70 percent of their time is free for athletic training.

Best for winter sports

The system seems to work especially well for winter sport athletes. Of 744 army athletes, only 200 are in winter sports, but they rack up the most successes. Much of that has to do with the popularity of winter sports in Germany and particulary in the army. Further, athletes also have good infrastructure and training possibilies for winter Olympic sports within Germany.

On top of that, "there are just fewer nations who do these winter sports," said Uwe Witte. "In Turin, 84 countries are competing. In contrast, there are 200 countries competing in the summer Olympics. (In summer) the spectrum of competing athletes is much bigger."

Witte added that the Bundeswehr placed great emphasis on supporting young, up-and-coming athletes. "Here, young people are pushed to be top in their field, in contrast to sponsorship by large companies, which is mostly aimed at a few very top athletes," he said.

Josef Nehren, head of the sports department of the Bundeswehr, has high expectations for Germany's success in Turin. In Salt Lake City, in 2002, soldiers took 25 of the total 35 medals that went to Germany.

"That is definitely good publicity. But for me it is more important that it shows that our system is good, and that it works well when it is used right. It also shows that money is being used well," he said.