Alfons Hörmann (born 6 September 1960) is a German businessman and sports official. Since 7 December 2013, he has been the President of the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund. He had previously served as president of the German Ski Association from 2005 to 2013.

Business career

Hörmann began his career in the building materials fabrication industry in 1977. From 1990 to 1998, he was the director of the marketing and sales department at the German company . He became its CEO in 1998 and remained in that position until 2010. From 2011 to 2016, was the managing director of and was a member of 's supervisory. From January 2018 to April 2020, Hörmann was the CEO of the .

Sports officialdom

In 2010, Hörmann joined the Council of the

International Ski Federation The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, also known as FIS (), is the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding. It was previously known as the International Ski Federation () until 26 May 2022 when the name was cha ...

. He was elected as president of the Bavarian Ski Association in 2002, German Ski Association in 2005, and then of the

German Olympic Sports Confederation The German Olympic Sports Confederation (, DOSB) was founded on 20 May 2006 by a merger of the ''Deutscher Sportbund'' (DSB), and the ''Nationales Olympisches Komitee für Deutschland'' (NOK) which dates back to 1895, the year it was founded a ...

(DOSB) in 2013 to replace

Thomas Bach Thomas Bach (born 29 December 1953) is a German lawyer, former foil fencer, and Olympic gold medalist. He has served as the ninth president of the International Olympic Committee since 2013, the first ever Olympic champion to be elected to tha ...

. Hörmann's election to the presidency of the DOSB led to the owner of Hörmann Industries, Hans Hörmann, firing Alfons and Alfons offering to resign from the presidency. Amid concerns of a lack of trust and confidence in Hörmann's leadership and the DOSB during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Hörmann resigned the presidency of the DOSB in June 2021 ahead of a

vote of confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit ...

. In July 2021, during the 2020 Tokyo Games, German cyclist coach Patrick Moster made a racist remark on film about North African cyclists for which he was sent back to Germany. Moster issued a public apology, and Hörmann commented on it to say that he believed that the apology was sincere. Hörmann was also criticized because of this event for the working environment of the DOSB as a result.

Controversies

In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 14-year-old Olympian Quan Hongchan, representing China won the gold medal in

Diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

. German Olympic Committee Chairman Alfons Homancun criticized the Chinese diver and said: “I don’t want to know that this Chinese girl was three, five, or eight years ago. What’s your daily life like. But I think that if you have to consider this training method, I must be critical of it.” Homan added: “This method of continuously lowering the age of the contestants is meaningless and ineffective. responsible.” This has raised huge criticism in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, some netizens criticized that the German Olympic delegation had set the worst performance at the Tokyo Olympics. While some slammed Alfons Homancun for his double standards, as German athlete Lilly Stoephasius, also aged 14, competed in

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

at the Tokyo Olympics games as well.

Personal life

Hörmann is married and has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hormann, Alfons 1960 births Germany at the Olympics Living people Olympic officials People from Kempten im Allgäu