At this point, the team reports to the Paralympics newspaper, a project by the Tagesspiegel and the German Social Accident Insurance. All texts of our digital series can be found here. You can find all the latest news in our blog and on the social media channels of the Paralympics newspaper Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Go to our reader survey here.
It was loud, it was confusing, and it must have looked a bit like Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s Metamorphosis, only the other way around: I lay there, face down, in the middle of the ice, completely helpless. The team from the Para-Eishockeyclub Berlin raced around me and repeatedly gave quick commands, which I only really understood when the puck was back in their own goal. Great, somehow I had imagined my debut in para ice hockey to be easier.
I was warmly welcomed by the team – in changing room 3 of the ice rink in Charlottenburg, directly behind the Olympic Stadium. It is barrier-free. No standard in the ice rinks of the republic, on the contrary. However, this is a prerequisite for being able to play ice hockey with a physical disability. The Para Ice Hockey Club Berlin trains here once a week. And it starts straight away: the team has one hour of ice time at their disposal, every second is precious.
Ice hockey is ice hockey, that quickly becomes clear here. The rules in para ice hockey are essentially the same as in Olympic ice hockey, two crucial pieces of equipment make the difference: Para ice hockey takes place much closer to the ice. Instead of ice skates, the athletes are on sleds, attached to metal struts and a plastic seat shell with all kinds of belts for the perfect symbiosis, including two runners. And: Instead of one stick, para ice hockey players even have two – with special functions. While one side of the stick is traditionally intended for shooting and passing, spikes are attached to the other end of the shaft, with which the players can push off and move forward – using only the strength of their arms and upper body.
Berlin forms a team in the Bundesliga together with Freiburg
The city has Gregor Kemper to thank for the fact that there is a para ice hockey team in Berlin at all. He was very surprised when he found no structures of the rehabilitation sport developed in Sweden in the ice hockey crazy capital. He made a deal with his employer, the statutory accident insurance, and the German Disabled Sports Association: If he succeeded in setting up a para ice hockey team in Berlin, the first set of jerseys would go to the account of the DGUV.
Almost 15 people now train weekly in Charlottenburg. In cooperation with players from Freiburg im Breisgau, the team plays in the Bundesliga against teams from all over Germany. A business that costs money. The association is supported by the Katarina Witt Foundation and Aktion Mensch.
And that pays off. Physically, but also mentally. The sport is “pure inclusion”, says Kemper, “because you simply break down inhibitions in a relaxed manner”. Willi Struwe sees it that way too. He lost his right leg in an accident at work nine years ago. Since 2017 he has been playing for Para-Ishockeyclub Berlin. “I can completely overcome my physical handicap through sport,” he says. “The way I unscrew one leg and put it next to the field, that’s how I do it in my head.” Contrary to the description of the sport as para ice hockey both lock themselves. Until 2016, the sport was still called sledge hockey. Then the Paralympic World Association decided to name all sports uniformly, in order to be able to better distinguish them from their Olympic partner sport. Gregor Kemper finds that suboptimal: “I think the term sledge hockey is more inclusive”. The core message is lost with the renaming, “because sled hockey is for everyone,” he says.
Germany failed to qualify for Beijing
The special thing about para ice hockey, pardon me, sledge hockey: mass and top sport are very close together. And everyone can participate. “It’s a great start,” says Struwe. “And if you have potential as a young person, you have the opportunity to be included in the squad for the national team.”
Andreas Pokorny is responsible for them. The former ice hockey pro, who won the championship three times with the Kölner Haie in the 1990s, has been leading the training of the best para-athletes for ten years. There are also some players from the Berlin team. Pokorny is happy to pass on his knowledge and experience. “It’s a great sport for people with disabilities,” he says. “Everything is there: speed, technique, physical exertion, you can totally burn yourself out”. That’s really nice.
Pokorny says that sledge hockey in Germany will not go beyond the status of an amateur sport. There is simply a lack of structures and money for this. You can’t keep up with teams from countries like the USA, Canada or China. Even for the Paralympic Games in Beijing it was not enough for the German selection. In the decisive qualifying tournament, they narrowly lost to the later participants from Slovakia. When Russia was excluded shortly before the start of the games, the German team would have moved up – but the decision was made too quickly. The disappointment about not qualifying was limited. In addition to sporting success, sledge hockey is also about something completely different – about social appeal, sport together and, above all, about having fun.
And then it still happens. The puck hits my sled from somewhere and bounces off with a loud bang, straight to my teammate. And even as I fall over, I see the net squirming. Hard to believe, my first assist! Whether it’s compliant or not doesn’t matter at the moment. The team on the ice cheers, all together. And somehow that’s exactly what it’s about.
–
