Basketball: Olympic champion Brunckhorst: “This is the starting signal”

Of course she has the gold medal with her. Safely stored in a white sock, Svenja Brunckhorst takes the precious metal out of her small fanny pack. »It’s still a bit surreal for us. There are always moments when you realize it, but I haven’t fully understood what that means for the future,” admits the Olympic champion in 3×3 basketball at the media event in the Alba Berlin office.

Specifically, the future brings a well-deserved vacation for the 32-year-old. Time to let the historic upset of the women’s 3×3 at the Paris Games sink in. It’s been a good week since the 1.79 meter tall development player and her teammates Sonja Greinacher, Elisa Mevius and Marie Reichert won the first ever Olympic medal for German basketball at the Place de la Concorde.

Golden end to his career

The 17:16 win in the final against Spain was also the golden end to Brunckhorst’s career: “Now that’s a good end. How can it get any better?” laughs the long-time captain of the German national team. Even before the Olympics it was clear that it would be her last tournament as an active player. Because the next task is already waiting for them. After her vacation, she begins her new job as manager of the girls’ and women’s teams at Alba Berlin. From September onwards, the Olympic champion will be aiming to keep the current wave of success among German basketball players going.

“We don’t want this to just be a one-off thing,” says Brunckhorst, also referring to the good performance of the German 5×5 women, who reached the quarter-finals in their Olympic debut, where they failed at the hands of the hosts from France. “I believe that this is the starting signal and now we have to take advantage of this opportunity,” demands the new Alba manager, because despite the recent successes, she still sees a great need for action in German women’s basketball.

Women’s Bundesliga as a problem child

For the six-time German champion, it starts with the fact that there are not enough indoor and training times for girls’ teams. In addition, more trainers need to be trained for the women’s sector. And the weak structures of the women’s Bundesliga also remain a big problem: “It is of course also the league where we have been saying for years that something needs to be done, that the infrastructure is better, that it is more professional, that even for youth players German league is a goal again.

Almost all top German players are currently playing abroad. Young talents are also trying to get into the college league in the USA rather than making the jump to the Bundesliga – like 3×3 gold medalist Elisa Mevius. The 20-year-old has been playing at the college for two years, as have 5×5 national players Lina Sontag and Emily Bessoir. For Brunckhorst, this is not a good development: “We now have few players in the national team, both in 3×3 and 5×5, who really come from the Bundesliga, and I think the foundation simply needs to be created now.”

Success on shaky ground

The success of the German basketball players is still on shaky ground. Before the 5×5 women’s team took part in the European Championships last year, the basketball players had not made it to an international finals for twelve years. “We had a very long dry spell, which I was actively involved in, but it wasn’t so nice,” reflects the 83-time international player. Now she wants to help give women’s basketball a more stable foundation.

As the new manager at the Berliner Albatrosses, Brunckhorst sees herself in exactly the right place: “I have often said that Alba is the project with the greatest potential for me. What really caught my attention is the basic work that is being done in Berlin.” The capital club has been promoting basketball on a broader scale for years, including with the “Alba goes to school” program, in which primary school children play basketball directly after class can, guided by Alba trainers.

Svenja Brunckhorst and Alba will not determine exactly what her tasks will be for the reigning champion team until September. First up is the vacation and an important furnishing question for the new Berlin apartment: The gold medal still needs a special place – so that it can get out of its safety sock.