Because the German Alpine Association (DAV) postponed increased funding for its national team for a year, Alex Megos launched a fundraising campaign for the athletes last week. Now the DAV is also speaking out.
There is too little funding for top German climbing – this was criticized last week by several members of the national team, especially Alexander Megos.The two-time Olympic participant therefore called for donations so that athletes can at least continue to travel to competitions.
Megos: “Careers in competitive sports are at stake”
The background: The DAV had postponed the decision for a better structure and funding of competitive sports by a year until late autumn. According to Megos, the German Sports Aid Foundation had also significantly reduced funding amounts. Donation appeal received a lot of support on social media, but the DAV was met with mostly criticism there.
Some of us have to raise several thousand euros to be able to compete in World Cups – and also cover travel costs for training events.
Alex Megos
DAV: “The best possible offer within the given framework”
The German Alpine Club has commented on the fundraising campaign to Lacrux and presented its perspective on the matter. You can read the full statement below.
Statement from the DAV
"Some of the athletes of @climbing_team_germany have attracted attention in the climbing community in recent days with a fundraising appeal. Since the appeal raises some questions, we, the German Alpine Club (DAV Leistungssport), would like to clarify and clarify a few things here.
The German Olympic Association (DAV) has not received any federal funding for competitive sports since 2022. Therefore, unlike almost all other Olympic federations, its budget must be financed entirely from its own resources. These resources are stable, but the costs of participating in this year's international competitions have risen surprisingly significantly, and for a positive reason.
Our team was very successful in 2024, and we received more starting spots. At the same time, the 2025 World Cup calendar is significantly more extensive and also more expensive than last year.
German Alpine Club
Of course, DAV competitive sports must plan seriously and can only realize participation within the available budget. There are now two options:
The season is planned in such a way that all athletes competing internationally are financed by the DAV. This means that In no competition are the possible quota places exhausted and only the two or three best athletes compete.
At all competitions, we try to maximize the quota of starting places to give as many athletes as possible a chance to compete internationally. Since the total costs would then be significantly higher than the available budget, a Performance-based division into association-financed and self-financed starting places.
In the latter case, athletes must cover their own travel expenses, but all other costs, such as sports medical care or coaching, are covered by the German Athletics Association (DAV). After careful consideration, we decided on the second option in order to give as many athletes as possible international exposure.
The overall situation is, of course, not ideal. Nevertheless, we are confident that we are making the best possible offer within the given framework.
German Alpine Club
At the same time, we are working hard to make DAV competitive sports future-proof and to generate more resources for competitive sports – not an easy task given the current funding situation, but an inspiring one."
End of DAV statement
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Credits cover photo: DAV