German Swimming Association Elects New Leaders

The German Swimming Association (DSV) has revealed its newly-elected leadership team heading into the final stretch toward the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Wolfgang Rupieper and Kai Morgenroth will co-lead the organization, replacing Marco Troll who has been at the helm for the past 2 years. Both Rupieper and Morgenroth have been elected for 4-year stints.

Rupieper, who previously served as President of the Brandenburg Swimming Association, said of his new post, “I hope that what we started two years ago and have already partially implemented can now be continued as planned. I’ve always had a trusting relationship with Kai,

For his part, Morgenroth added, “This is not a new beginning here. We don’t have to rebuild everything, we just have to finish a lot. Based on my experience, I can start immediately and promote the topic of finance and help shape it in a positive way. A lot has been thought about in the last two years and now it’s time to get down to business, to implement it.”

In terms of goals, Rupieper says, “So far, the focus in the DSV has been too much on competitive sport. Of course, this is very, very important, but we are in the process of building up popular sport with sport development and education by means of structural changes.

“Especially in the field of education, we simply lack the adequate conditions to fill the positions due to the cut in funds. Of course, we also want to open up other sources and, for example, found a swimming academy in Berlin, these topics will certainly be on the agenda in the next few months.

The DSV says it is ‘working intensively on restructuring management levels towards more full-time positions’ with a timeline goal of within the next 12 months.

An additional topic discussed during the DSV’s meeting this week was that of sexual violence in swimming.

“We want to conduct a process of reappraisal that has never existed in sport before. We want to become a role model for all of German sport and improve processes and standards in the DSV and in all of Sport Germany in the long term,” said Rupieper.