Austria’s Handball player At the European Championships they surprise the favourites Spain, Croatia, Hungary and hosts Germany and only narrowly miss out on the match for 5th place;
Austria’s Schwimmer took fifth place in the medal table at the European Long Track Championships with five gold medals;
Austria’s Track and field athletes win gold and silver at the European Championships.
What is happening in Austrian sport right now? Will the country really be a Sport-Nation become?
If you look at the infrastructure, the answer to this question is clearly no. Austria could hardly host a major event in any of these sports.
The football team plays in a Oval from the 1930swhich according to City vienna until the 2060er-years.
Im Eishockey Austria has been since the melting of the ice in Vienna City Hall 2005 a blank spot on the map of World Cup organizers. And despite the 2024 World Cup success, the association has so little money that it has canceled children’s summer camps, some of which were even co-financed by parents.
In real sports nations, success is the result of structures, of youth development in particular and of sports development in general. Only then is there reasonable training opportunities and modern arenas for the professionals.
Austria’s successes have little to do with this. But one thing unites all the winners listed above: they have mentality made it to the top. Despite the structures and infrastructure.
Not because.