Days, 7 Good News: Our Sports Wish List For 2022

We want to see him fly once again in front of the whole world! Noriaki Kasai, who has already starred alongside Gert Fröbe in "Die tollkühnen Männer in ihren fliegenden Kisten" (The daredevil men in their flying boxes) and has actually competed in ski jumping for Japan at the Olympic Games an incredible eight times. He would be our dream starter for the Beijing Olympics. Okay, in 2021 the worm was in, with a disastrous 22nd place at the Japanese Ski Jumping Championships being the low point. But once again at the Olympics in Beijing the concentrated look before the jump, then hearing the "ziehhhh" of the audience, and at the end seeing the contagious smile of Noriaki after the landing, that would be it!

This bird can fly - and how: Sarah Vogel is the reigning European junior pole vault champion. Because she is so promising, Vogel was named the Junior Sportswoman of the Year in December. Next July, she could perhaps make her first appearance on the big pole vaulting stage. That's when the World Track and Field Championships are in Oregon. So far, Vogel's best mark is 4.30 metres - we are quite sure you can fly much higher!

Make yourselves comfortable, dear Tour de France starters. Here a view of the Baltic Sea, there an ice cream. With guffa, of course, the delicious sweet foam that adorns every Danish ice cream. We would already know how we would behave in the first stage of the Tour de France... But well, probably the first stage will be the usual race in superspeed. But it's nice that it's starting in Denmark for the first time. And it's great that it's in Copenhagen - then the style-setting bicycle friendliness of the Danish capital will be presented to the whole world.

Jule meets "Rafa" - that would be the tennis news of the year for us. Jule Niemeier, a young star of German tennis who has long been plagued by injuries, wants to take the next big step in her career in 2022. That could be a move into the top 100 of the women's world rankings. And possibly for the 22-year-old to make it into the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. There, the chances would be good for the player from Dortmund to meet her idol Rafael "Rafa" Nadal. "I like how he plays, how he pulls his forehand, how he fights, his whole spirit," she told "Tennis Magazin". Make an effort, Jule, and you'll make it!

And the Winner is... a woman, a man, a former pro or the accountant of an amateur club. It doesn't matter. The main thing is that the new president of the German Football Association (DFB) finally manages, after the election in March, to do what all predecessors have failed miserably: Representing the Germans' favourite sport as a joyful community event in which children and adults can have the best time of their lives.

In the past, German basketball fans always overshadowed Dirk Nowitzki. Now Dennis Schröder has freed himself and should gradually really pull through in the NBA. We wish for thrilling playoffs and maybe even an NBA final. And if it doesn't work out in the USA. Dennis could return to Braunschweig.. His Basketball Lions, where he is now the sole shareholder, are still some way from their goal of the Top 5 in Germany. But if Schröder returns, quite different rankings would certainly be possible.

Olympic champion Aline Rotter-Focken made a brilliant plea for wrestling at the ZDF Sports Gala in Baden-Baden. When asked why daughters should take up the sport, the mum-to-be replied: "It's a tough sport that teaches a lot. But also the fairest there is in the world. In our sport, anything that hurts the opponent is forbidden. And we're the martial art that defeats each other, and is immediately in each other's arms afterwards." Even if she herself has hung up her sports career, we wish such a great advertisement for many more disciplines!