Owe Fischer-Breiholz was heartbroken. “I have never felt such disappointment,” said the U-23 European champion after finishing fifth in the 400 meter hurdles final in 48.56 seconds. Actually a remarkable achievement in the first European Championship participation in the adult sector, but for Fischer-Breiholz it didn't feel that way at that moment.
His disappointment was less about the placing than about the difference between what he expected and what he had achieved in the race. “I was ready to give it my all and somehow I just didn’t succeed at all,” said the 22-year-old. He ran the whole race on the other side and ran out of energy on the last straight. "I just don't understand how I was able to play so little. I know my potential. I know exactly what I can do. I haven't even shown that this season."
At this European Championships, not only the medals, but also the way people handled their own performance told us something about the state of German athletics. Reactions like Fischer-Breiholz's show a growing self-image, which the athletes report again and again in conversations.
Steeplechase runner Lea Meyer, who was left without a medal after falling on the last ditch, also scheduled a defiant interview afterwards. “I think I deserved the medal,” said Meyer, and criticized European champion Gesa Krause for just staying in her slipstream: “Today the best competitors won,” but she considers herself to be the “best obstacle runner in Europe” and will be “the German record holder” by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“Your own standards increase when you take part in the World or European Championships,” says Fischer-Breiholz’s competitor Emil Agyekum, who won silver in 47.87 seconds: “At some point you no longer just want to be there, you also want to win.” The sentence describes a change that can be observed in several athletes. The world and European champion Leo Neugebauer no longer measures his performance just by medals, but sets himself concrete goals: The 9,000 points in the decathlon are “definitely due at some point,” he says, and who knows: then maybe Kevin Mayer’s world record of 9,126 points?
Merlin Hummel also describes how ideas about what is possible have shifted: “When I look at the hammer throw, you used to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games with 79 meters,” says the twenty-four-year-old, who confirmed his rise to the top of the world with silver at the European Championships. But since Ethan Katzberg threw 80 meters at the age of 21, he thought: “It’s possible and I don’t have to take five years to do it.”
A similar mechanism can also be observed in running disciplines. In April, Frederik Ruppert ran the European record over the 3,000 meter steeplechase and was the first European to stay under eight minutes. “When someone performs well, everyone else thinks: I can do that too.” That's how it was for him last year, when he ran the German record in 8:01.49 minutes and won the final of the Diamond League, says Ruppert: "I presented and everyone else followed suit."
“Today Germany can run again”
ARD expert Frank Busemann also points to the impact of such role models. “I am particularly pleased with the self-image with which many athletes now present themselves,” said the former decathlete in an interview with ran.de before the European Championships. For years, Germany was hardly competitive, especially over the distances from 800 meters to the marathon. “Today Germany can run again.”
Busemann not only observes better results, but also a different attitude: "As Germans, we often tend to make ourselves smaller than we are. But anyone who thinks before the competition that the others are better anyway is depriving themselves of part of their performance." About the German champion Robert Farken, for example, who fell below his potential in the final over 1,500 meters and had to settle for ninth place, Busemann says: "He competes with the clear desire to win. This attitude is exactly right."
However, not all athletes' increased self-image is tied exclusively to medals. Long jumper Malaika Mihambo emphasizes that the perspective from the outside has to change. Silent successes should also be acknowledged, for example when someone jumps from number 30 to number 15 on the list. “Performance is more than just gold.” When she was asked in January what the seven-meter mark meant to her, she gave a similar answer. Your benchmark is your own performance, said Mihambo: “It’s not the number itself that matters, but the extent to which I manage to develop my full potential.”
“The journey is not over yet,” says the DLV confidently
The German Athletics Association's view of success has also changed. In 2012, the former general director Frank Hensel claimed to be among the six best nations at the Olympic Games and World Championships. Competitive sports board member Jörg Bügner did not focus solely on the number of medals at this European Championship. “Our aim was for us as a German team to be present in Birmingham, to be at the forefront and to utilize our capabilities,” he says. It's about more than placings: The association wants to develop athletes who take responsibility, enter big competitions with courage and can perform well even under pressure.
Bügner also observes that the athletes have higher expectations of themselves: “We see athletes who are not only happy to be there, but who have the confidence to fight for the top places and also medals.” The athletes didn't just want to achieve their personal best, but rather play a role in major competitions. “This is exactly the attitude we need.”
According to Bügner's account, this development did not just begin in Birmingham. “About two years ago, together with our coaches and the entire team, we embarked on a path in which we further developed our structures, our daily work and our performance orientation,” he says. “A lot of stones have been turned over”. The association is now seeing greater breadth, young athletes are moving up, established top performers are developing further - and the self-image is also changing. “And the journey isn’t over yet.”
Bügner answers whether the DLV creates these expectations or whether they come primarily from the athletes themselves: "Our task is to improve and optimize the framework conditions in order to enable top performance - and to accompany our athletes. At best, this leads to a different expectation among them."
Disappointments are part of this journey. Competitive sport is emotional, and anyone who invests everything can also be dissatisfied if the result does not meet their own expectations. “What matters is how you deal with it and what you learn from it.” The association looks at it together with the athletes: What happened? What can we learn from this? And what do we need to attack again next time? “Our aim is a culture in which success can bring joy and disappointment also has its place,” says Bügner.
A fourth or fifth place at a European Championship is an outstanding achievement. At the same time, it can feel like a disappointment for an athlete who started with the hope of a medal. “Both can exist at the same time,” says Bügner. It is therefore not just the placement that is crucial, but also the performance behind it: Has anyone fulfilled their potential? Did someone act bravely? Has anyone shown their performance under the pressure of a European Championship? If these questions could be answered with yes, much would be gained.
With athletes who publicly devalue themselves after a competition, the association tries to gain some distance together and classify their performance. “We don’t just say: ‘Everything is great’ when someone knows that it wasn’t the competition they wanted,” says Bügner. Instead, try to broaden your perspective: that a bad competition does not erase the work and development of the past months or years.
"Self-criticism can be a motivation. But it must not turn into self-destruction," says Bügner: "Our aim is that our athletes learn to deal constructively with defeats." Long-term success involves being able to deal with both: the joy of victory and the disappointment of defeat.
