No bowling, no swimming, no table tennis: Corona has put a strain on disabled sports in this country. A three-month break was a long time and a special challenge for many active people and the clubs. Many inclusion projects were put on hold. The associations feel abandoned.
No table tennis, no bowling, no swimming and certainly no Special Olympics events - the disabled sport had to take a break for three months because of Corona (picture-alliance / Sven Simon)
Finally play table tennis again. Since indoor sports were permitted again in Berlin about two weeks ago, life has returned to the sports and exercise center of the Lichtenberger workshops - and after a three-month break in her training group, Karina Küster can swing the racket again: “The mood is really great. Actually, everyone is in a good mood when they play table tennis. ”
After three months of corona break back on the plate
Twice a week, table tennis training is back on the program of the SG Reha and the SG RBO - two sports clubs from the Berlin district of Lichtenberg, which since their foundation in 1990 have focused on people with intellectual disabilities or multiple disabilities. The 42-year-old Karina Küster and her teammate Constanze Panjok recently had the lockdown in the sports area:
“Bit stupid, forever failure. That was a change where we heard it. You have to come up with something else that you do for so long. "
“Bowling wasn't, swimming wasn't, table tennis wasn't, and club wasn't either. Three months was a long time, was missing. Fun, exercise and among people. "
Too little attention for disabled sports
Table tennis trainer and club founder Gernot Buhrt is a sports pedagogue in the sports and exercise center of the Lichtenberger workshops and also sits on the advisory board of the Berlin-Brandenburg state association of Special Olympics Germany - the official umbrella organization for people with intellectual disabilities. He also knows that the corona pandemic was a great challenge for his club members:
“For many, work and sport structure are very important. They go to the handicapped workshop during the day and then go to sports in the afternoon. If that is not the case, they sit at home all day, mostly either in their living group or some also live in their own apartment. And therefore have very little social contact. And of course that was very difficult for them at this time. ”
Buhrt has been campaigning for the Special Olympics idea for more than 30 years. The public perception of handicapped sports increased, but Buhrt felt little of it during the corona crisis:
“As mass athletes, we felt behind. Because the many exceptions cause unrest. How do you want to communicate them? And especially people who have cognitive impairments, it is even more difficult to explain: Why are they allowed and why not? "
Too many discussions about ghost games and high performance sports
The Left faction in the German Bundestag also complained about insufficient attention to handicapped sports during the corona pandemic and therefore requested an audience of some handicapped sports associations in the Bundestag's sports committee. Too many discussions about football ghost games and high-performance sports - André Hahn, the spokesman for sports politics on the left, wanted to prevent this:
"There the disabled athletes fell down again at first. And so we wanted to send a positive signal with this session. ”
In the committee meeting on Wednesday , the German Disabled Sports Association, Special Olympics Germany and the German Deaf Sports Association confirmed this impression.
Inclusion projects were not continued
Inclusion projects have recently come to a standstill, barriers to inclusive sports activities in sports clubs have risen again. Access to information and online offers was also difficult during the corona lockdown - or nonexistent at all. The German Deaf Association complained that, for example, the video information from official agencies on the corona crisis was initially published without subtitles or sign language interpreters.
Federal budgetary funds have risen steadily recently
In some areas, there is certainly a need to catch up, says Stephan Mayer, CSU politician and parliamentary state secretary in the Ministry of the Interior and Sports. But he also points out that the federal budget for handicapped sports has risen steadily recently: "That is why I cannot understand the impression that handicapped sports are neglected here."
Friedhelm Julius Beucher, President of the German Disabled Sports Association, also drew attention to the financial consequences of the pandemic: “We do not yet know how many membership fees will be missing. We already know that events that have been dropped mean that there is only a limited amount of TV money. ”
Special Olympics Germany complains of large financial gap
According to Beucher, the rehabilitation sport could not yet be carried out in the clubs again to cover costs. At Special Olympics Germany , the failure of donation runs has already created a financial gap of EUR 300,000 - the association puts it.
CSU politician Stephan Mayer also presented an interim report on the national plan for implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which Germany committed in 2009.
The member of the Bundestag André Hahn. (picture alliance / dpa / Britta Pedersen)
But the result is not satisfactory for left-wing sports politicians: less than one percent of the 90,000 sports clubs in Germany are inclusive. And only eight percent of people with intellectual disabilities do sports: "These are results that are completely unsatisfactory."
The main reason for this is the lack of accessibility in the sports clubs. Hahn advocates that the funding of sports facilities should be linked to the accessibility criterion. Stephan Mayer wants that too. The legal responsibility, he says, lies with the federal states.
