DOSB presidential election | Martin Engelhardt: An honorable candidate for the DOSB

Sports doctor Engelhardt is considered a tireless worker who likes to speak plainly. Photo: imago/Ed Gar In a network as difficult to understand as the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), it is only wise not to trumpet your ambitions too quickly. This Wednesday, however, Martin Engelhardt, the President of the German Triathlon Union (DTU), could no longer keep quiet about what had recently been revealed through the rumor mill: The renowned sports doctor is running to succeed the outgoing DOSB President Thomas Weikert. 

“I would like to make German sport an offer that reflects its diversity: with a sports plan for Germany, which we will implement together with politicians, and with the aim of tackling the major national and international tasks in a united and successful manner,” said the 66-year-old.

This means that the general meeting on December 5th in Frankfurt am Main will face a vote, as so far only IOC member Michael Mronz has been proposed. But the sports manager from Cologne is considered by many to be too smooth. In contrast to the opposing candidate. The sports doctor Engelhardt is valued as someone who conscientiously and credibly advocates for the interests of sport. A contender for the highest office in German sport that is as honorable as it is uncomfortable.

The Hanau native, who loved extreme challenges like the Ironman during his active days, speaks straight away when things get unsporting somewhere. He knows everything right down to the basics: after all, he has been active in organized sport for 50 years, on committees, advisory boards and, since 2000, also as chairman of the board of the sponsoring association of the scientific institutes of German sport, IAT Leipzig and FES Berlin. All voluntary, mind you.

Engelhardt still works full-time as head of orthopedics and trauma surgery at the Osnabrück Clinic, but will stop there in March next year. “From April 2027, I will be able to devote all my energy to the DOSB – without professional obligations and without business interests in sport,” he promises.

If he is elected, the restless jack-of-all-trades with little need for sleep doesn't just want to concentrate on Germany's Olympic bid. The dwindling number of volunteers and the frightening lack of exercise among many children and young people are problems that have been bothering him for years. After the Paris Olympic gold medal for the German triathlon mixed relay team, Engelhardt warned: “Over 16 percent of our children are already obese, almost 50 percent of ten-year-olds can no longer swim properly, and almost the same number of children can no longer run 1,000 meters in one go in the stadium. It is completely incomprehensible that these problems are not being addressed.«

The neglect of many sports facilities and the deficits in school sports are also a thorn in his side. All tasks that he would tackle as DOSB President. You just have to choose him. Engelhardt himself keeps it sporty: “The members will decide.”

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