With Magdeburg being home to many of Germany’s best swimmers and open water swimmers, the city along the Elbe River will soon be home to a new national aquatics centre, thanks to the country’s central government appropriating 51 million euros to the effort.
"We are very happy that the work of those responsible for the state of Saxony-Anhalt and the state capital Magdeburg, whom we have supported in numerous discussions with political decision-makers, is now also being pushed forward at full speed at the federal level. It will take the competitive sports work of the DSV with its five Olympic sports to a whole new level,” said DSV Chairman Jan Pommer. " This gives us a lot of inspiration for the detailed planning that is now necessary. This is a very good day for swimming. Our goal of reliably being one of the top five nations in the world of swimming from 2040 onwards will thus be sustainably supported."
World and Olympic champions like Lukas Martens and Florian Wellbrock played a pivotal role in bringing a world-class swimming centre to the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt.
"This is mainly thanks to the swimmers at the federal pool swimming base in Magdeburg and the training group around national coach Bernd Berkhahn,” said Saxony-Anhalt's Sports Minister Dr Tamara Zieschang. It is thanks to their impressive international successes that Magdeburg has developed into a figurehead of German swimming."
The city and swimming community have also attracted international talent in recent years, including World and Olympic medallists Moesha Johnson, Sharon van Rouwendaal and Mykhailo Romanchuk. At this year’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, open water athletes from Bernd Berkhahn’s training group in Magdeburg won six golds.
According to the German Swimming Federation (dsv) release, the swimming centre will house a 50m pool in competition format, a current channel, weight rooms and related sports performance facilities. It will be built next to the city’s handball arena.