"Digital dictatorship" at the Olympics?

Journalist describes the situation to Lanz - Geisenberger wants "never to go back to China"

Created: 02/17/2022, 09:31 am

The talk show on “Markus Lanz” (ZDF).

© ZDF (Screenshot)

In “Markus Lanz”, the German record Olympic athlete Natalie Geisenberger reports on her stay at the Olympic Games in China.

Hamburg – The Champions League will be followed by a sporty 45-minute edition of “Markus Lanz” on ZDF on Wednesday evening.

With the luger and two-time Beijing Gold winner Natalie Geisenberger*, the group takes a critical look at China*.

For Geisenberger it was gold numbers five and six, so the games were “incredibly emotional from a sporting point of view” for her.

Nevertheless, she never wants to go to China again, says the athlete...

Olympics in Beijing – record gold winner Geisenberger with “Markus Lanz”: “... and then never again to China”

After her first World Cup experience in China, Geisenberger said she initially considered "whether I have to go there again".

In your opinion, an Olympia* boycott is not suitable for changing the political situation in China.

Instead, "there is simply another name on the list of results".

After talking to family and friends, she was able to bring herself to participate: "I said: Okay, I'll go there for two weeks now, do my job, then go home - and then never go to China again."

Geisenberger reports that she neither came into contact with the local Chinese population unless they were IOC volunteers, nor was she able to leave the Olympic Village.

In order to take part in the games, the athlete also had to download a Chinese health app, to which she had to continuously transmit health data, such as body temperature.

"I had no choice," says Geisenberger, "either I download the app and fill it out, or I don't go there."

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"Insanity.

Who was this app from?

From the Chinese government or from the IOC?” Host Lanz tries to find out from the athlete.

Geisenberger doesn't know, but the journalist Ulf Röller, who was connected via video from Beijing, confirms that he too has to use a similar app.

The China correspondent: “It was only in China that I really understood what a digital dictatorship is.

If all of a sudden this app is not green but red, then I can more or less not move.”

Sports journalist Thomas Kistner believes that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has become so corrupt under the leadership of Thomas Bach that it is actually looking for countries like China or Russia to host the Olympic Games.

Kistner attests the IOC under Bach's leadership "feudal structures" and discusses the personal details of Ahmad Al-Sabah, Carlos Nuzman, Lamine Diack and Patrick Hickey with host Lanz.

They were all convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison terms.

Things are similar at FIFA, Lanz remarks and asks Kistner how many of the 24 officials who organized the World Cup award to Qatar* are still at large.

Kistner: "Two.

Two who have never been bothered by the judiciary.”

"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on February 16:

• Natalie Geisenberger

  – luger

• Thomas Kistner

  – sports journalist

• Ulf Röller

  – journalist

Talkmaster Lanz can hardly believe that there is a statue of IOC President Bach in a park in Beijing.

"Is that real?" he asks in disbelief in the direction of the Röller.

He replies with a smile: "He also got the biggest title.

He is called a 'friend of China'.

He is a well-known man and a well-respected one.

I would say: an associate of Xi Jinping*.”

In the case of tennis player Peng Shuai, who disappeared without a trace after public allegations of abuse*, Bach Xi Jinping helped, Röller continues to report.

Because Xi was afraid that the Shuai case could overshadow the Olympic Games, Bach met the athlete several times.

This resulted in images with which he supported "the Chinese story that she is fine".

Röller describes this as "complicity".

Winter Games 2022: Record Olympian Geisenberger has gold six times – will she attack again in 2026?

Geisenberger also spoke to Bach because she had been critical of the chaotic processes at the World Cup in China with regard to the games.

She had to wait seven hours on a bus without even being allowed to use the toilet.

"Everything will get better," Bach assured her and referred her to an official who could answer her questions.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with the processes during the Olympics.

Geisenberger's conclusion: "That was okay."

At the end of the program, talk show host Lanz asked Geisenberger whether she would compete again at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, after all she was still young.

"I'm incredibly young," jokes Geisenberger, "I've just turned 29 for the fourth time." However, she cannot say whether it will be enough for another Olympic participation, and at the moment it has not even been decided whether she will take part in another one Adding to the season: “I'm sure I'll be there.

But I don't know yet whether as a spectator or actively.

Four years is still a long way away.

Now I'll decide in a few weeks whether I'll do another year."

"Markus Lanz" - The conclusion of the show

From the lighting of the Olympic flame by a Uyghur woman, to the reports of the luger Natalie Geisenberger from the Olympic Village in Beijing, to the role of the German Thomas Bach in the IOC: The "Markus Lanz" group took a critical look at the Olympic Games in on Wednesday evening China.

Sports journalist Thomas Kistner and the journalist Ulf Röller, who joined in from Beijing, become clear and clearly show the abuses in the associations.

What is somewhat neglected in the program are suggestions for improving the situation.

How could a return to the spirit of past major sporting events succeed?