Sports

Berlin is an athletic city: about 550,000 Berliners are active in almost 2,000 sport clubs. An additional 500,000 Berliners participate in non-club athletic activities. There are more than 2,000 athletic facilities throughout the city. There are indoor and outdoor facilities in every district, and the city is a paradise for those who love water sports: 112 sailing clubs, 58 rowing clubs, and 57 canoe clubs call Berlin their home.

Nonetheless, football is still the most popular sport in Berlin . In the German capital there are over 310 football clubs with about 98,000 members. The Berlin Football Association is the largest association for a single sport in Berlin , followed by the Turnerbund (gymnastics association) with 75,000 members.

The series of major sporting events begins each year with the traditional Six-Day Race (cycling) in the Velodrom on Landsberger Allee in January. Like numerous other facilities, this hall was created during Berlin ’s bid for the 2000 Olympic Games. The top basketball stars from ALBA BERLIN play their home games in the Max Schmeling Hall. In the spring of 2007, the opening game of the Handball World Championships also took place in this great facility. Every May, the WTA women’s tennis tournament dominates the sports scene at the tennis club LTTC Rot-Weiss. Fans from throughout Germany mark their calendars early for the next big event, the finals of the DFB German Football Federation Cup in the Olympic Stadium. After four years of modernisation and an investment of about 240 million euros, the historic multi-sport arena with the sensational blue track has become one of the most attractive stadiums in the world.

The Bundesliga football team Hertha BSC Berlin, a club rich with tradition, also profits from its new home stadium.

The approx. 130-hectare Olympic Park, which includes the Olympic Stadium and numerous other sports facilities, is one of the largest sports complexes in the world. This great facility provides ideal conditions for training and competition for both amateurs and professionals, ranging from an aquatic stadium to a climbing garden. In addition, construction of a new multi-functional arena has been started at the site of the former Ostbahnhof ( East Berlin ’s former main train station). When it is completed in 2008, the new hall will be able to hold up to 17,000 spectators and is to host 300 events in the first three years alone.

Athletics takes centre stage in late summer: More than 60,000 spectators come out to support the top athletes at the traditional international stadium festival ISTAF, the final event of the IAAF Golden League Series. Then, hundreds of thousands of spectators line the streets when 35,000 runners set off on the world-record course of the Berlin Marathon.

In August 2007, the elite athletes of the modern pentathlon will meet in the Berlin Olympic Park to compete for the title of world champion, and just about two years later this facility with its fantastic stadium will host the 12 th IAAF World Championships in Athletics berlin 2009™, the third most important sporting event in the world.

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12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics berlin 2009™

Sports