With a (subsequent) record in surfing, a Mount Everest climber without escort and oxygen tank and an advertisement for the Special Olympics 2022.
Sebastian Steudtner surfed a special wave in Nazaré in Portugal in October 2020 - and even while he was doing it, it was instinctively clear to him what he had accomplished. "You can tell a little bit by how dark the wave is. The darker, the more power the wave has. So I knew right away that it was going to be something crass," he told the Bild newspaper. Now it's confirmed: The wave was a whole 26.21 meters high at the time - as high as a small skyscraper and thus a record in wave riding! So the wait was worth it and we congratulate quasi belatedly.
What is written on paper does not always make it into the implementation. But with the key points paper of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, at least the prerequisite for bringing sport, exercise and competitive sports into the Basic Law has been created. And thus to give this area a special significance. An important signal is also sent to the federal government: in addition to top-level sport, popular sport must not be neglected. This should be ensured, for example, by a Minister of State for Sport. We find good and keep our fingers crossed that it does not remain only on paper.
Daniela Ryf won her fifth Ironman title two weeks ago. And until now, the public also knew only this side of her - the extreme athlete who pulls through and eliminates all competition. "For a while, it definitely helped me that the competition thought I was a machine," she told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Now, however, Daniela Ryf is speaking out on much more personal issues, such as reconciling competitive sports with her private life and changes in her sexuality. In general, she wants to show that athletes also want to and can enjoy their lives alongside their sport - just like everyone else. And exactly this openness is for us a Good News.
Attention female athletes, Malaika Mihambo is back. Last year she already won Olympic gold in the long jump. This year she starts directly in Birmingham with a 7.09-meter jump - that's even further than in the winning year. And she's positive that's not all: "I think there's definitely more in it," the 28-year-old said. It shows us that she is top form and that we can look forward to the European and World Championships with her.
Before the DFB Cup final, athlete Juliane Rößler and ambassador Robert Herberg once again advertised a sporting event that deserves even more attention: The Special Olympics from 19. to 24 June in Berlin. More than 4000 athletes with mental or multiple disabilities will take part. For this purpose, the burning torch has already been presented at the Cup Final in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin - and we are excited, which records will await us this year at the Special Olympics.
Olympics have always been criticized for wasting resources on stadiums that were built for this purpose only and fall into disrepair after the Games. But with a study, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has now shown that this is not true: 85 percent of all permanent sports facilities continue to be used for sports. And in Rio de Janeiro, which has been seen as the most glaring example of the lack of sustainability, the figure is as high as 93 percent. Examined were 817 arenas and 106 temporary sports venues starting from the Games in Athens 1896 to Pyeonchang 2018. That is for us clearly Good News!
Two times David Göttler had to abandon his Mount Everest climb, but on his third attempt he made it - and he did it alone and without oxygen, which once again set him apart from all the other climbers. Waiting time he could not afford, so he first had to let the commercial expeditions with oxygen tanks ahead to finally have a clear path. Congratulations on this extraordinary achievement!
