TV blackout spurs on handball players at the World Championships
They are playing in a World Championship and have dreams of the Olympic Games at the back of their minds, but fans can only watch the German handball players on the internet for a fee. There will be no live pictures on TV. The national coach and his team are not letting this get them down.
When Emily Bölk and Co. chase a medal on the big World Cup stage in the coming days, hardly anyone will be watching. Germany's handball women will be fighting for their Olympic dream behind the paywall on the Internet. The tournament can only be seen on Sportdeutschland.TV.
"I'll never complain," said national coach Markus Gaugisch. The fact that the World Cup will once again not be shown live on free-to-air television is "of course a shame". But Gaugisch wouldn't be Gaugisch if he didn't draw great motivation from this. The TV blackout only spurs him and his team on even more.
"I hope that, as the driving force behind the German national team, we can help to ensure that our sport is present in the media and that we might even make it onto public television by qualifying for the Olympic Games," says Gaugisch. He is certain that by then at the latest, "more people from outside the sport would stick around and see what a great sport handball is".
Olympic participation as an "absolute dream"
Gaugisch, as is clear with every sentence, is eagerly awaiting the upcoming World Championship tournament in Denmark. His eyes light up when he talks about the DHB team's World Cup opener against Japan on Thursday (6 p.m./Sportdeutschland.TV). The impressive streak of more than a year without defeat is a source of self-confidence - even the botched World Cup dress rehearsal against co-favorites Sweden (23:30) doesn't weigh too heavily.
The German team goes into the preliminary round with games against Japan, Iran (Saturday) and Poland (Monday) as favorites. Gaugisch is convinced of the minimum goal of reaching the quarter-finals, which would probably mean a ticket to one of the Olympic qualifying tournaments in the spring.
Participation in the Olympic Games, which would be the first for a German women's handball team since 2008, would be "an absolute dream for Gaugisch. I will do everything I can to make sure we get there." His players have a similar view. "We have it in our own hands to achieve a position that can make it possible for us," said DHB captain Bölk.
However, Bölk and her teammates are also unhappy about the transmission situation in Germany. "For me, it clearly has to do with appreciation," said Bölk in the "Erste 7" podcast. For her, it is "clearly the job of the media to ensure equality". Bölk promises that the German team will "do everything we can to be successful at this World Cup so that the free TV stations simply can't get past us".
She speaks from the soul of her coach. "Our job," says Gaugisch, "is to try as a team to get the maximum out of it and be as successful as possible. Unfortunately, we can't influence anything else."
Despite the handball world cup being available only on a paywalled online platform, Gaugisch and his team remain undeterred, viewing the TV blackout as an additional motivation. The German national handball team, led by coach Markus Gaugisch, dreams of Olympic participation, a dream they believe they can make a reality by performing well in the upcoming World Championship tournaments.
Source: www.ntv.de
