Bundeswehr for Drygalla

Nothing interests the media more than a scandal, or so it seems. When the German rower Nadja Drygalla left the London Olympic Games in August when it was revealed that her boyfriend - and ex-oarsman, too - belonged, or had once belonged, to a far-right, neo-Nazi, party, the German and international media were all over the place to scrutinize her. Surely, Germany could not have a person rowing for her country if she had far-right political views, the story went... Well, Drygalla had never had any neo-Nazi political views, and the only thing one could maybe say on one hand was that she had a poor judgment choosing a boyfriend, but on the other hand, the party he (once) belonged to was 'politically correct' enough to have seats in some state parliaments, but not on a federal level.

After a several hour hearing conducted by the German Rowing Association, Deutscher Ruderverband, in September, the organisation’s president, Siegfried Kaidel, told the media that the Association stood behind Nadja Drygalla. Then on 1 November, news came that she has been allowed to join the German Military, the Bundeswehr, which in its ranks has around 744 athletes training while they are soldiers. This is a way for those top sportsmen and -women without a big-money sponsorship behind them to still be able to focus on their sport. This cost the Bundeswehr and German state about 32 million euros ($41 million) per year.

Read more about Nadja Drygalla and the Bundeswehr here.

Drygalla gets the DRV Support

Nadja Drygalla

After a several hour hearing conducted by the German Rowing Association, Deutscher Ruderverband, the organisation’s president, Siegfried Kaidel, told the media on Tuesday that the Association stood behind Nadja Drygalla. She made the headlines during the Olympic rowing event when she was sent home after it was revealed that her boyfriend Michael Fischer – an ex-rower – had ties to the neo-Nazi movement in Germany. A spokesman for the German Olympic Committee also made a comment, saying that the investigation on the 23-year-old female rower had cleared her from having any links to right-wing political groups.

In a press release on the German Rowing Association’s website it says: ‘In a friendly, constructive atmosphere Siegfried Kaidel confirmed that the Association stands fully behind its athlete.’

Already last year, Drygalla had to leave the police force because of her relationship with Fischer. A lively debate broke out in Germany when Drygalla was forced to leave the Olympic Village in London. The rower received support from the German Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière, who told the magazine Der Spiegel: 'Must we demand that sportswomen and sportsmen reveal who they are friends with, what they think? Where does one draw the line?'

Rowing And Politics, A Good Mix?

British Rowing Chairwoman Di Ellis CBE and Sir John Major, former Tory P.M. and National Lottery innovator. Photo: British Rowing's website.

Writing about rowing, I try not to mix in politics as sport and politics seem not to blend well. Just look at the hullabaloo in Germany right now, when one member of the nation’s women’s eight left the Olympic Games in London when it was revealed that her boyfriend was a right-wing activist (on top of everything, he was a former oarsman!); her poor choice of a boyfriend was scrutinized in the German national media for days, and in the international media as well.

However, we can not neglect the impact politics or a politician can have on sports. In an article in the current issue of Rowing News (Vol. 19, No. 7, August 2012), Chris Dodd asks Mike Sweeney, the Chairman of Henley Royal Regatta, to name the most important person behind British Rowing’s rise from the bottom position it had in the beginning of the 1970s. Without hesitation, Sweeney replies: John Major – the Tory Prime Minister who followed the ‘Iron Lady’, Margaret Thatcher, at the helm of the United Kingdom in 1990. You can like or dislike Major, but what was good for the different sports in the U.K. was that Major, in Allan Massie’s words, ‘gave Britain the National Lottery’.

And this is what Mike Sweeney means with his answer to Chris Dodd’s question. British rowing gained a lot from the National Lottery, and looking back on the record heap of medals that the British rowers managed to collect at these latest Games, many politicians should envy this particular legacy of John Major. That the former P.M. is still popular in the British rowing world is shown in this article published on British Rowing’s website, “Sir John Major applauds GB rowers”.

Many countries support their athletes, especially for upcoming Olympic Games, but a renown example of rowers who do not get any monetary support from their country’s government is the American rowers, which HTBS has written about before.