Teenager team fetches silver at home and celebrate with carbonara!

Teenager team fetches silver at home and celebrate with carbonara!

At the European Home Championships in Leipzig, the German gymnasts showed an impressive performance on May 27, 2025. The team, consisting of five teenagers Helen Kevric, Karina Schönmaier, Janoah Müller, Silja Stöhr and Lea Marie Quaas, secured the silver medal in the team competition with a total of 158.396 points. Only the defending champions from Italy were better with 161,930 points, followed by France, which scored 156,728 points. Success represents significant progress after the team had only won a bronze medal at the European Championship 2022 in Munich. Team captain Karina Schönmaier expressed her pride in this success.

The celebration after the competition, which included a meal of Spaghetti Carbonara with the parents, was particularly remarkable. Janoah Müller and Helen Kevric were surprised by the success, whereby Kevric also spoke about the difficult situation in which the Kunst-Turn-Forum Stuttgart is due to allegations of abuse. She emphasized that it was not a victim of abuse and maintains a good relationship with her trainers.

burden on allegations of abuse

The European Home Championships were strongly under the shadow of allegations of abuse that were raised against the art gymnast forum in Stuttgart. These allegations burden the entire event and have led to two trainers being released. The Stuttgart public prosecutor is investigating for coercion. The Baden-Württemberg Sports Ministry has frozen financial means for the Kunst-Turn Forum until the allegations are enlightened. Against this background, the President of the German Turner Association (DTB), Alfons Hölzl, expressed the importance of the events.

The women's national coach Gerben Wiersma is faced with additional challenges because the gymnasts had to do without their coaches. Helen Kevric, the talented in the team, has not participated in competitions since the end of December 2024. Wiersma hopes for a short -term solution for the coaching question.

criticism of the German Turner-Bund

The allegations of physical and mental abuse in German gymnastics are not new. Former gymnasts such as Tabea Alt had already pointed out grievances several times, including the pressure to train despite injuries and the engagement in an environment often described as harmful. Despite the announcements of the DTB to strive for a change of culture, many of the criticized practices seem to be continuing. The DTB had promised to take measures at the time, but observations from various training bases indicate that there were no sufficient consequences for those responsible.

In the current situation, the DTB is under pressure not only to provide the allegations of abuse, but also a significant change in culture in competitive sports. National coach Wiersma had already announced that top performances can also be achieved with joy in sport - an approach that could be increasingly brought into focus in the future.

The gymnasts' silver medal is an important step in a positive direction, but the continuing challenges throw a shadow on sport and those responsible in the institutions urgently need to work on a sustainable solution.