Mother and successful tennis player - goes both, proves Tatjana Maria. 14 months after the birth of her second daughter, she entered the second round at Wimbledon. "Wimbledon is my favorite Grand Slam and it is the first Grand Slam match I have won with both daughters," she commented. I'm sure that speaks to many other women's hearts, as pregnant women and mothers have tended to be thwarted by the WTA tennis association. "We are really super role models for all players on the tour who simply want to start a family," Maria told "tagesschau" back in March. We love that!
When sports events are broadcast on public television alongside soccer, they are often only selectively. ARD and ZDF didn't take this lying down and developed a concept for the German Championships so that none of the 14 different popular sports would be neglected in the broadcast. And this was extremely well received: Over several hours, more than a million people tuned in consistently, and as many as 1.8 million for athletics. ZDF head of sports Thomas Fuhrmann commented: "Being able to experience the diversity of sports live in a coherent way is appreciated by the audience." So keep it up!
The German beach handball players are clearly on course for success: last year they won the European Championship. Now they're going one better by winning the World Cup - because this is the first World Cup title for the team. And that will ensure more (fully deserved) attention for beach handball, which is often only number 2 behind indoor handball. The president of the German Handball Federation, Andreas Michelmann said this was "a fantastic success". He continued, "For German beach handball, this is a milestone." We think so too, so congratulations.
In the table tennis world, there is a new name to remember: Dang Qiu. The 25-year-old from Nürtingen is currently rising rapidly. First he won a tournament of the new World Table Tennis Tour in Lima and directly afterwards the German championship in singles for the first time. And that took him straight into the top 10 of the world rankings. Hopefully we'll be hearing a lot more from this young newcomer in the future.
We've already reported on Otto Addo and his heart's project, namely training Ghana's national soccer team for the World Cup in Qatar, in the Good News.
But Addo's job is even broader than the responsibility for training his players. Together with Gerald Asamoah and Patrick Owomoyela, among others, he has now announced an anti-racism initiative to help affected players deal with hostility.
"I know that the DFB is active, but not in the way we would like. It is therefore time for us to organize ourselves, form up and show the flag," Addo, who has had his own experiences with racism, told Sport1.
Once again concentrated mom power in today's Good News: Daniela Bleymehl won the Ironman in Frankfurt. But she had to suffer quite a bit for it: Physically she was not well at all, she felt sick after the second bike lap and during the run from kilometer 15 on. Nevertheless, she pulled through ironclad and prevailed against all competitors. "I was a little bit off for a minute [after the finish]," she said. "I'm proud that I pulled through." Both thumbs up for that incredible stamina!
Watching it almost makes you dizzy: The world just flies by as Elias Schwärzler let himself be pulled to a speed of 272 km/h on a normal mountain bike. This was made possible by a motorcycle that kept accelerating him at the Lausitzring. This earned him his place in the Guinness Book of Records, even if he missed his original goal of 300 km/h. But we're sure he'll only be satisfied with the 272 km/h for a while. Congratulations!
