Germany’s swimming federation has announced its official squad for the European Junior Championships to take place in the Netherlands (Dordrecht) next week.
The roster features 13 boys and 13 girls for the Junior Championships, at which Germany has historically done very well. In fact, the Germans haven’t finished outside the top 3 in gold medals or in the overall medal table since 2008, including 21 total medals (3 of them gold) at the 2013 edition of the event.
The women’s squad is headed up by Laura Riedemann, a returning five-time medalist from 2013. Riedemann swept the bronze medals in all three backstroke distances, plus helped the German women’s and mixed medley relay teams to silver.
Those German relays were a high point for the nation at the last games, which took place in Poland. All three women’s relays (4×100 free, 4×200 free, 4×100 medley) and both mixed relays (4×100 medley, 4×100 free) took silver medals, and the men’s teams won two bronzes (4×200 free, 4×100 free) and a silver (4×100 medley).
Damian Wierling returns from all three of those men’s relays, and Alexander Kunert is back from two of them. Some other important faces on the teams include female breaststroker Marlene Huether and IMer Lisa Hoepink, both individual medalists in 2013.
Notably absent from the team is 14-year-old Johannes Hintze, who has been smashing national age records in Germany for quite some time now – the European Juniors are only for male athletes ages 17-18 and females ages 15-16.
You can view the full rosters below, or by following this link to the website of DSV, the German Swimming Federation.
| Girls | Birth Year | Club |
| Annalena FELKER | 1998 | SG Essen |
| Carmen Maria FRANICZEK | 1998 | SG Frankfurt |
| Laura GOLDBACH | 1998 | SG Essen |
| Katrin GOTTWALD | 1999 | SSV Nürnberg |
| Lisa HÖPINK | 1998 | SG Essen |
| Marlene HÜTHER | 1998 | SSG Saar Max Ritter |
| Alina JUNGKLAUS | 1998 | SV Würzburg 05 |
| Nele KLEIN | 1998 | Potsdamer SV |
| Leonie KULLMANN | 1999 | SG Neukölln Berlin |
| Laura RIEDEMANN | 1998 | SV Halle/S. |
| Josephine TESCH | 1999 | SC Eintracht Berlin |
| Maxine WOLTERS | 1999 | SG Bille Hamburg |
| Jana ZINNECKER | 1999 | Bitterfelder SC 1990 |
| Boys | Birth Year | Club |
| Henning MÜHLLEITNER | 1997 | SV Schwäbisch Gmünd |
| Alexander KUNERT | 1996 | SV Gelnhausen 1924 |
| Felix KUSNIERZ | 1996 | SG Essen |
| Max PILGER | 1996 | SSF Bonn |
| Ruben RECK | 1996 | W98 Hannover |
| Johannes TESCH | 1997 | SV Halle/S. |
| David THOMASBERGER | 1996 | SV Halle/S. |
| Marek ULRICH | 1997 | SV Halle/S. |
| Konstantin WALTER | 1997 | SSG 81 Erlangen |
| Damian WIERLING | 1996 | SG Essen |
| Pascal WINTER | 1996 | SG Stadtwerke München |
| Tommi WOLST | 1996 | SSG Leipzig |
| Oliver ZEIDLER | 1996 | SG Stadtwerke München |
Hintze will compete at the youth olympic games, so he will focus on that instead. For me the most notable missing athlete is Sonnele Öztürk (200 back: 2.11.19), also Moritz Brandt (400 free, 200 fly, 400 IM) is missing (born 1998). Lisa Höpink isnt only an IMer, but maybe better at 100 fly (1.00.43). Alexander Kunerts best events are 100 (54.26) and 200 fly (1.59.03).
Our best chances for medals are the following:
200 free: Kullmann, Jungklaus
100/200 breast: Hüther
100/200 back: Riedemann
100 fly: Höpink
200 IM: Höpink, Wolters
400 IM: Jungklaus
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50/100 free: Ulrich/Wierling
200 free: Wierling
400 free: Mühlleitner
100 back: Ulrich
100/200… Read more »