What do Michael Schumacher, Timo Boll and Britta Heidemann have in common? Answer: they are among the world’s finest sportsmen and sportswomen – plus, they all come from North Rhine-Westphalia, as does one in every five professional German sports performers. In fact, it’s no coincidence that here, between the Rhine and the Weser, the tally of successful top-ranking athletes is particularly high: the search for talent, and providing gifted up-and-coming sportsmen and women with intensive support on their way to the top, are among the key political objectives of this federal state and are shared by every party. And the German Olympic Sports Federation thinks so too: “North Rhine-Westphalia tops the list when it comes to the promotion of up-and-coming talents in competitive sports.”
One of the true greats from North Rhine-Westphalia is Michael Schumacher. Seven World Championship titles, 91 Grand Prix victories, 68 pole positions – the records set by this racing driver have already passed into Formula One history. Schumacher loves challenges, and even with his matchless career officially over, retirement has not even crossed his mind. Instead, the seven-time World Champion has found a new passion: motorcycling.
In Germany, a star – in China, a superstar. That’s table tennis pro Timo Boll – one of the game’s finest international exponents and ranked fourth in the world. Boll’s success has won him a place in the hearts of the table tennis-loving Chinese. Boll has been European Singles Champion three times, Team European Champion twice and World Cup winner twice. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he won the silver medal in the Doubles. A native of Hesse who has made North Rhine-Westphalia his adopted home, Boll has been playing with Borussia Düsseldorf in the German Table Tennis League since 2007.
Another player with exceptionally strong ties to China is épée fencer Britta Heidemann, who graduated in Chinese Studies, has spent several months in Beijing and speaks Chinese fluently. In China – her second home – the 25-year-old is virtually worshipped. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she won the gold medal. She was ranked third in the Fencing World Championship in 2002, and her team took second place the following year. In 2004 she carried off the silver medal at the Athens Olympics, going on to win the Singles World Championship in 2007.
Optimal infrastructure
World class sportsmen and women like Schumacher and the others are living proof that North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the top international locations in the field of competitive sports. One reason for this is the close cooperation between the regional government, sports clubs and associations and schools, colleges and universities. More than 40 percent of all the country’s programs for fostering up-and-coming talent are offered in North Rhine-Westphalia. The sports infrastructure is virtually ideal and the training programs are excellent, with a grand total of 29 federal sports centers, 300-plus regional sports centers and three Olympic sports centers making up the backbone of the region’s sporting prowess.
The Sportstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalian Sports Foundation) was founded in 2000 and invests 3.7 million euros a year in the systematic training of the junior Olympic elite. One key aim of the region’s commitment to top-class sporting endeavor is to enable people to combine a professional and a sporting career, with a variety of innovative types of school on hand to provide the ideal conditions. Thanks to the NRW Sports Schools, the elite sports schools, schools with a sporting emphasis, partner schools for competitive sports and special sports boarding schools, this region gives children and young people the chance to develop their sporting aptitudes to the fullest while still obtaining proper school leaving qualifications.
Sport and science go hand in hand
The sustainable development of competitive sports calls for sports theory and practice to be closely interlinked. This is why, as well as promoting tomorrow’s elite performers, North Rhine-Westphalia is also firmly committed to research and training at scientifically-oriented sporting institutions. The disciplines encompassed by sports and exercise science are now represented in around 25 departments at new universities in North Rhine-Westphalia.
An international flagship for this is the Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln (German Sport University Cologne). As a European university for sports, it serves as a prototype for all institutions devoted to sports science. It is Germany’s only university for sports, and the largest of its kind in the world, renowned for its research and teaching work in more than 30 different sports. It is in close contact with 53 partner colleges and universities in 32 countries. Of its approximately 6,000 students, nine percent are from outside Germany.
In the future, the “Wildor-Hollmann-Ehrenmedaille” (“Wildor Hollmann Medal of Honour”) will recognize exceptional achievements in the field of sports medicine. And the regional “Sport and Science” Prize, due to be awarded for the first time in 2009 by the Ministry of the Interior, will reward outstanding research work in the field of sports. “With this prize,” says Dr. Ingo Wolf, North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Sport, “we are promoting successful cooperation between sports, politics and science.”