Sport Personalities
The world recognizes Germany's best athletic talent in the international sporting arena. There is no questioning the fact that German sport stars for years have lifted their particular sport to new levels. Michael Schumacher revolutionised Formula 1 racing and helped raise the traditional Scuderia Ferrari to new heights. The efforts of Franz Beckenbauer to improve German Football, from his time as a world championship player and coach, to his stewardship in bringing the 2006 World Cup to Germany, were invaluable. The achievements of stars like Boris Becker and Steffi Graf (Tennis), Fritz Walter and Uwe Seeler (Football), Timo Boll (Table Tennis), Dirk Nowitzki (Basketball) or Max Schmelling (Boxing) will always be closely connected with the national and international development of their respective sports.
German tennis legend Steffi Graf turned forty
Stefanie Maria Graf, born in Mannheim, Germany in 1969, celebrated her 40th birthday on Sunday, June 14. A truly outstanding athlete, she was ranked World No. 1 player by the Women’s Tennis Association for a total of 377 weeks, a record that still stands for both men and women. Steffi, who prefers to go by Stefanie these days, started her unequalled tennis career at age four and was coached by her father. She soon became the most successful German tennis player of all time and dominated women's tennis like no player before or since.
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A Football Star Made in the GDR
As a teen Ballack attended a school that focused on sports, though he still had to complete a core academic curricula to receive the German high school diploma, or Abitur. By living at home with his parents instead of boarding at the school as many other pupils did, much of East German communist ideology reportedly passed him by. He was too young, moreover, to have spent much time in a "young pioneer" youth group, akin to an East German boy scout troop. His life essentially revolved around soccer, seven days a week, both before and after German unification.
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Sporting Stars 2008
Every sportsman and woman dreams of reaching the very top, of becoming one of the world’s best athletes. Usually, however, this remains just a dream. Only very few succeed on the road to the top. We introduce five of them – sports stars from Germany
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