Munich and Kiel selected as German Olympic candidates for 2036, 2040 or 2044

German sport is applying with Munich as a candidate and Kiel as a sailing location to host the Olympic Games in 2036, 2040 or 2044. The German Olympic Sports Confederation announced this decision after an extraordinary general meeting in Baden-Baden.

The Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr region and its sailing location Rostock-Warnemünde were left behind in this elimination. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and DOSB boss Thomas Weikert announced the result. Kiel can therefore hope to host Olympic sailing regattas for the third time after 1936 and 1972.

In April, in a referendum in Kiel, 63.5 percent voted in favor of applying for the Olympics. In 1972, the sailing regattas of the Munich Games also took place in the world-famous and tried-and-tested area off Kiel-Schilksee in Schleswig-Holstein. The sailing competitions were also held in Kiel at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

Sailing city with a world reputation

The Kiel Week regattas at the end of June are considered important competitions in Olympic sailing. There is also a federal base for the German Sailing Association in Kiel.

The largest regional associations in the German Sailing Association (DSV) had also spoken out in favor of Kiel in the run-up to the decision, including even the North Rhine-Westphalia Sailing Association, even though the state's Olympic bid had decided on Rostock-Warnemünde. Together, these regional associations would represent “75 percent of German sailors,” said Schleswig-Holstein’s Sports Minister Magdalena Finke.

Who exactly decided on the German applicant?

The 42 leading Olympic associations were entitled to vote, each with three votes, eight personal members and the ten executive board members of the DOSB. However, the leading associations are only allowed to cast their three votes in a block. The total number of votes is 144, but at least three personal DOSB members were missing from the secret vote: the currently injured soccer star Leon Goretzka, the former Monski driver Anna Schaffelhuber and the canoe polo player Elena Gilles.

The original four-way battle had turned into a duel after the rejection in the citizens' referendum in Hamburg at the end of May and Berlin's withdrawal two days before the vote.