Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke’s tragic suicide has changed little in “brutal” professional soccer, a leading sports philosophy professor said, ahead of the anniversary of his death tomorrow.
Enke had been set to travel to South Africa with the German national side to play in June’s World Cup, but he committed suicide on Nov. 10 last year by throwing himself under a train.
His widow Teresa held a press conference less than 24 hours after her husband’s death to explain he had been suffering from bouts of depression since 2003.
Germany coach Joachim Loew and Theo Zwanziger, the president of the German Football Federation plan to lay a wreath on Enke’s grave tomorrow.
Fans are also planning a memorial march the same day from the city center to the Hanover 96 stadium to pay their respects.
However, Gunter Gebauer, a former athlete and philosopher at Berlin’s Free University, says there is still little sympathy for athletes suffering from depression.
“Things have changed surprisingly little,” Gebauer told German daily Bild.
“First, there was a big shock after his death and the feeling that we must do more to protect at-risk athletes but professional football is as brutal as ever. More victims will suffer before anything changes,” he said.
Gebauer says sports stars are disgarded far too easily in modern society.
He highlighted the example of Germany captain Michael Ballack, who missed the World Cup with an injury and has now lost his place in the national side.
“When Michael Ballack was ruled out of the World Cup, first there was sheer dread but once Germany started being successful without him, his own team-mates seemed glad he was gone and he has now been stamped as a out-of-date model,” he said.
And Gebauer said any sportsman who admitted they have a weakness or, like Enke, suffer from depression, would be finished in such a cut-throat environment.
“What would happen if a football player reveals his weakness? He would be finished. In this merciless business, it’s all about the newest talent and how they portray themselves,” he said.
Just last weekend, it was revealed German speed-skater Claudia Pechstein admitted planning to take her own life after she was banned for two years last year. The International Skating Union banned her after the five-time Olympic champion was found to have had irregular levels of young red cells in her blood.
In the wake of her ban, she admitted planning her own suicide, along with her husband, but her agent managed to talk her out of it.
After his death, the Robert Enke Foundation was set up to help those suffering from depression.
Gebauer says Enke’s suicide highlighted the symptoms of the mental illness and meant other sufferers can get the help they need.
“A former world-class athlete recently said in an interview that he was saved because his family heard about Enke and saw similar symptoms in him,” Gebauer said. “So Robert Enke did not die completely in vain.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but