Season’s Greeting from the WGI President
Dear members, dear affiliates and dear friends of the WGI,
On November 11, we held WGI’s Annual General Assembly – once again in the beautiful premises of the Hotel Kaiserhof in Münster. We were able to look back on a successful year with many national and international projects and, in light of our solid financial situation, take an optimistic look at the coming year.
The 2024 Olympic year, with the very impressive and futuristic implementation of the Olympic Games in Paris, was also characterized by a wide range of activities for WGI’s Olympic Sport Department. In cooperation with Helga Leineweber, head of the university’s “Education and Culture in Sport” department, our Vice President Michael Krüger organized a lecture series where international experts presented on the state of the Olympic movement and Olympic education. Embedded in this lecture series was the “Olympic Study Day” on 24 June, hosted as a panel event on the topic of “Olympia in the crossfire of criticism: What happened to the Olympic idea?” in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Annette Hofmann from the Ludwigsburg University of Teacher Education.
The fourth worldwide colloquium of the Olympic Study and Research Centers (OSRC) took place in Besancon just before the Paris Olympic Games. Roland Naul and Yoonkyu Song represented the WGI there and initiated the founding of an “11 Plus Network” of eleven OSRCs on the topic of “Olympic Education”. A highlight for the city of Münster in the context of the Olympic Games was certainly the organization of the Special Olympics NRW, where the WGI also provided support in close cooperation with Helga Leineweber.
In the Children and Youth Sport Department, Nils Neuber continues to work closely with Miriam Kehne (University of Paderborn) and Jessica Süßenbach (University of Lüneburg) on behalf of the dsj on a quality framework for exercise, play and sport in all-day schools. In terms of knowledge transfer, the certificate course “Exercise, play and sport in all-day schools”, which was launched in November 2024 with great resonance as a further training measure for pedagogical leaders and teachers from schools and all-day providers, fits in very well with this work. DSLV NRW, LSB NRW and UK NRW are important cooperation partners in this measure, which is scheduled to run until May 2025. In March 2024, under the direction of Nils Neuber and Maike Tietjens, the highly acclaimed symposium “Development support in school sport – for everyone!” took place, in which around 300 participants dealt intensively with the topic of inclusion in lectures and workshops.
The first international events have taken place in the EU-funded HORIZON project TBrainBoost, which aims to promote the mobility and exchange of researchers. Eric Eils, Head of WGI’s Competitive Sports Department, is expecting several international scientists in Münster next year and will then also organize a workshop on knowledge transfer. The department is also working on research projects to develop a test battery specifically for beach volleyball, beach handball and beach soccer and to introduce a monitoring system for athletes in ice skating. In an interesting project on talent development in girls’ soccer, the focus is on the extent to which girls can be better supported in high-performance girls’ training groups than in mixed-gender groups with boys.
Our Head of the Health Sports Department, Dennis Dreiskämper, accepted a professorship in sport psychology at TU Dortmund University on August 1. He continues to work in close collaboration with Maike Tietjens and Lena Henning at the WGI on large empirical surveys on the motor and psycho-social diagnostics of primary school children both at a local level in Altenberge and in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim as well as in the nationwide project “Move For Health 2.0” in cooperation with the HU Berlin and TU Dortmund University, among others. Projects in collaboration with the German Youth Institute and an all-day cluster in NRW are also in the pipeline. In May, Dennis Dreiskämper was awarded the prestigious “Jürgen-Nitsch-Preis für Theorieentwicklung in der Sportpsychologie” at the annual conference of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Sportpsychologie – congratulations!
The WGI was also very active in other projects in 2024: the final results and transfer activities were presented in the Erasmus+ project “EduPASS: Education for Physical Activity and Sport: Informal and non-formal settings”. Roland Naul and Sebastian Brückner are in charge of this project for the WGI, but IfS students were also involved and had the opportunity to take part in international training workshops. Marie Ghanbari and her “Sportpaten” have long been a hallmark for the promotion of participation and social learning in Münster, and in 2024 she also presented the successful model internationally – a good opportunity for networking and the acquisition of new partners and supporters beyond Münster.
The outlined selection of diverse national and international activities for 2024 also shows that the WGI, with its scientific expertise and knowledge transfer into practice, is a competent project developer and sought-after cooperation partner, which is also documented by numerous publications. The recently published vol. 17 of the WGI’s publication series on “European Conference on Physical Education and School Sport”, edited by Roland Naul and Stefanie Dahl, is impressive proof of this.
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to a major international conference in 2026. From 29.06. to 01.07.2026, the WGI will be organizing the next major CEREPS Summit at the Franz-Hitze Haus in cooperation with the university’s “Education and Instruction in Sport” department, among others. The plans for this event will be finalized and communicated over the course of next year, with the hope of broad participation from the WGI community.
With great hope for a more peaceful future, I would like to wish you and your families, on behalf of the entire Executive Committee and the Management Board, a wonderful Christmas season and a happy, successful and, above all, healthy 2025!
With best Season’s Greetings
Yours
Dr. Heinz Aschebrock