Pantathlon Club: Hans Rainer and Günther Fritz have been members for 50 years
The Panathlon movement sees itself as a service to sport and athletes. The Innsbruck Club has 38 members. Two of them have now been honored for their 50-year commitment.
The most recent club evening of the Panathlon Club Innsbruck was all about two anniversaries. dr Hans Rainer and dir. President Winfried Sponring presented Günther Fritz with the honorary certificate for more than 50 years of Panathlon membership. In addition, both have a book by Barbara Schett-Eagle, former Top 10 tennis player and member of the Innsbruck Panathlon Club, including a personal dedication.
Jubilarian wishes to be involved in school sports
As part of their activities, both jubilees not only earned valuable services for the sport of both, above all they have always supported the panathlon movement, said club president Sponring in recognition of their commitment. As part of his speech, Sponring once again appealed to the numerous club members present, “that the values of Panathlon must be carried out, but this must be done together by all members.” Panathlon stands for values and the idea goes beyond sport, Hans Rainer thanked for the honor and made a wish: “We have to do more for school sports, which is extremely important.”
High-performance sport is crowding out other sports
Another highlight of the event was the presentation by Günther Mitterbauer, Union Honorary President and Vice President of the Innsbruck Panathlon Club, on the subject of “Thoughts in top-class sport”. “Over the last few centuries, high-performance sport has benefited greatly from our society’s growing need for entertainment and consumption – and it still does,” pointed out Mitterbauer and added: Focusing on a few types of sport and their spectacular top performances provide high entertainment value for many, but reduces it Awareness of the others, with significant losses in their competitiveness. The hierarchy in sport is also problematic. This affects all the specifications of the international associations – specifications for sports facilities, specifications for rules, specifications for framework conditions are followed worldwide, by the national and regional professional associations through to the clubs. Some of these requirements are expensive or complex in terms of organization and therefore cannot be met by many sporting institutions. Mitterbauer concludes: “In the many facets of sport, high-performance sport runs the risk of losing its freedom, limiting itself to a consumer sport with many interest groups and thus losing its legitimacy.”
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