Modern Pentathlon Athletes rebel against German boss Schormann
The World Pentathlon Federation is meeting this weekend. National federations and athletes are rebelling against President Schormann. The accusations: autocratic style of leadership, trickery, deception and a lack of transparency.
When the delegates of the International Modern Pentathlon Union, UIPM, gather in front of their computers this weekend for the virtual congress, a revolution is looming. In the traditional Olympic federation led by Klaus Schormann, a retired teacher from Darmstadt, at least two sides are fighting bitterly over principles. And although no regular Presidential elections are due, Schormann must fear for his position almost 30 years after taking office.
The explosive results of the latest ARD research were not even known at the time: The UIPM officially states the annual costs for the president's office at 250,000 dollars in a protocol attached to the annual report. The office is located in Julius-Reiber-Straße in Darmstadt, in a property that, according to information from the city of Darmstadt, is rented to the Hessian Federation for Modern Pentathlon "at favourable conditions": for 504.90 euros per month including heating and ancillary costs. The city informs ARD-Sportschau: "This discounted amount is grossly disproportionate to the 250,000 dollars that you researched and that the International Modern Pentathlon Federation states in its annual report. We therefore now immediately request the Hessian Modern Pentathlon Federation, which is our tenant, to comment and will draw consequences after receiving it." Schormann left an ARD-Sportschau enquiry as to what expenses were behind the budget item "President's Office" unanswered.
The federation leadership has taken precautions to make life difficult for the opposition. For example, despite written complaints and the UK's offer to host the congress and provide cost assistance if necessary, they insisted on holding it virtually. This makes it difficult for national federations to reach agreements, for regular exchanges to take place, and allows the UIPM-leadership in Monte Carlo to direct the proceedings by allocating speaking rights and limiting debates. During this week's test run, federations complained that the chat function was switched off.
Half of the 253-page booklet published for the congress consists of motions, almost half a dozen of the submissions deal with motions of no confidence in the President or the expulsion of board members. On the surface, the dispute over direction has flared up over the question to be settled at the weekend of whether the athletes should still ride horses in future in addition to running, shooting, swimming and fencing, or instead replace showjumping by completing an obstacle course. For many observers, it is crystal clear that the rebellion in Modern Pentathlon is part of the uprising of mature athletes against officials who act autocratically as an end in themselves. In order to counter such tendencies, athletes' organisations such as the Verein Athleten Deutschland (German Athletes' Association) or Global Athlete had expressly founded themselves outside of organised sport.
Athletes have lost confidence
Disputes within modern pentathlon centre around the leadership style of President Schormann and his board: Some of the most important member federations and many of the best athletes worldwide complain about autocratic behaviour, that under the appearance of democracy only trickery and feinting is going on, that processes are not transparent, that athletes' needs are ignored. "We athletes," says British Olympic champion Joe Choong, front man of the revolt, "have lost confidence in Klaus Schormann." With the former Australian modern pentathlete Alex Watson, a potential Schormann successor even expressed interest a few days ago.
The internal chaos is hitting the traditional Olympic sport at an inopportune time. It is on the International Olympic Committee's scratch list. It is still part of the Olympic programme for the 2024 Games. For 2028, the IOC still has to give its approval because the federation has not yet clearly decided on a fifth discipline to replace riding. For the UIPM, Olympic affiliation is vital: it receives over 12 million dollars from the Games from the IOC, almost its entire budget.
"Submission to the will of the President is necessary"
It is one of the masterstrokes of strategist Schormann to have always kept UIPM in the Olympic canon over the past two decades. Not without trickery has he secured internal backing. For example, the Danish federation has published draft contracts from 2016 that show that Schormann's UIPM was already secretly looking into a cooperation with an obstacle course federation long before discipline was allegedly selected in a cost-intensive process by a group of experts as a replacement for equestrian sports only last winter.
Schormann's opponents criticise him for not having tackled the real problems of his sport: diversifying the sources of income, modernising the equestrian competitions. It was only in this way that the big scandal surrounding the ride of the German rider Annika Schleu could have happened in Tokyo, mainly due to the failure of officials. "The UIPM has been and is run as the President's personal fiefdom in which subservience to the President's will is required", the Danish motion for a vote of no confidence argues.
Arrangements made
There are numerous examples that might substantiate such an accusation. For example, in a break with tradition, the non-publishing of minutes from the UIPM board meeting in Ankara in June, which ARD-Sportschau was nonetheless able to view, show that Schormann is in favour of threatening the British modern pentathlon federation with the withdrawal of the 2023 World Championships if it does not support the position of the UIPM leadership. The British federation will receive over one million euros in funding for hosting the event. Schormann did not respond to ARD Sportschau's enquiry regarding this.
And are secret ballots guaranteed for the weekend? The technical service provider of the UIPM for the election processes at the upcoming Congress informs ARD-Sportschau: "All voting data is immediately deleted at the end of the congress to ensure its integrity and secrecy.“ Does this mean that during the event it will be technically possible to find out who voted how in secret ballots, as various participants suspect?
In his nearly 30 years in office, Schormann has made provisions for headwinds. Out of soon to be 131 member federations, most have been added during his tenures. About a third have neither elite-athletes nor -competitions, but officials. Critics fear that many are defending Schormann's line out of gratitude. In addition, there are the Russians and possibly well-meaning federations, because the UIPM has suspended Russian and Belarusian athletes, but not their influential officials such as the Russian oligarch Vyacheslav Aminov. Schormann himself did not answer ARD's questions about this, and the UIPM only stated in general terms that it complied with IOC regulations. Vice President Aminov, who is close to the Russian Ministry of Defence, also boasts in this Congress book that he has privately funded numerous national federations.