German Olympian Justus Nieschlag has revealed that he will no longer be a part of the German National Team. Following the decision of the DTU (German Triathlon Union), Nieschlag will not receive support from the federation going forward.
In an Instagram post, he disclosed that he was informed of this one day before Christmas. Having been on the highest level of support in the German system, it represents quite a radical drop in funding.
The German system is generally quite heavily tied to performance-based criteria. As such, if an athlete does not hit the criteria in a given season, they may lose their position in the squad. In some cases, exceptional discretion may be used to keep an athlete on the squad.
After injury issues, Nieschlag raced sparingly in 2022. His best result last year came back in April with an 11th place at the Quarteira European Cup.
In 2019, though, Nieschlag gave a clear indication of his talent. Alongside a 7th place at WTCS Hamburg, he won the Madrid World Cup. He also won two further World Cup silver medals in New Plymouth and Cagliari.
Moreover, he provided the anchor leg of Germany’s silver medal-winning relay at the World Mixed Team Relay Championships. That day, he ultimately lost out to Vincent Luis and the French team, however his overall split was actually two seconds better than that of Luis.
Recently, the German head coach, Thomas Moeller, announced that they would be prioritising the individual race over the relay going into the Paris Olympics. Given his recent injuries, that seemed to play against Nieschlag. In 2021, he qualified by Tokyo via the relay route by winning the German qualification event in Kienbaum.
Germany enjoyed notable success in 2022 and is hopeful of qualifying three men individually for Paris. Nevertheless, it may be a waste to discard a known talent such as Nieschlag.
The 2011 European Junior champion may have been able to accrue the necessary points for Paris had he managed to recapture his form. The German National Team have instead decided to close that door altogether.
Perhaps the most important thing this episode highlights is just how susceptible athletes are to the whims of their national federations. Whether through controlling the purse strings or through discretionary selection policies, they exercise a lot of power over athletes.
Going forward Nieschlag will be moving into long distance triathlon. However it is significant that a seasoned professional can essentially be out of a short course career on such brief notice.
Irrespective of the future, Nieschlag will always be an Olympian and a multiple World Cup winner and so can look back on his short course career with pride.
