While the number of sport shooters has increased slightly in recent years, individual clubs have had to give up during the pandemic. Problems are caused by young people and environmental regulations.
Leinefeld-Worbis/Elxleben/Suhl (dpa/th) - Thuringia's rifle clubs are increasingly struggling with youth problems. "There are hardly any new members under the age of 40, which is a concern for us," explains Mirko Poltermann, President of the Geratal Elxleben rifle club. Although the number of members in his association has been around 150 for years and has recently increased slightly, there is a lack of young members in many places.
Michael Gohritz, managing director of the Thuringian Shooting Federation, assesses the situation in a similar way. As with many other clubs, two years were almost completely eliminated due to the corona pandemic. It's difficult to catch up. The number of member clubs has fallen from 481 to 475 in recent years, partly due to Corona. In principle, however, shooting sports are in demand, explains Gohritz. Some clubs that had to give up during the pandemic would already regroup. There are currently between 18,000 and 19,000 shooters in the association’s clubs, with a slight upward trend.
In the Schützengesellschaft Worbis, too, the number of members has risen steadily in recent years from 68 to 88, explains chairman Marko Godau. With 15 young people, the club currently has one of the largest youth departments in the rifle system in Thuringia. The youngest member of his club is 9 years old, the oldest 82. A balanced mix of old and young is important.
"The only thing I find sad is the fact that there are still so few women involved in shooting sports," said Godau. Shooting has long been a male domain, and this perception is only changing very slowly. "We are seeing a lot of interest among female shooters and very good results." An observation that Gohritz also confirms: At the moment it is mainly women who have qualified for the Olympic Games in Thuringia.
The Schützenbund sees problems above all in the planned ban on lead ammunition on the shooting ranges. There is currently no adequate replacement that produces similarly reliable results as conventional ammunition. Mirko Poltermann also demands that the qualification for competitions urgently needs to be adapted to the real conditions and made more up-to-date. Due to the small number of shooters in competitions, it happened that only one participant was registered at the district championships, which are a prerequisite for the state championships. In addition, it must be possible to register digitally for competitions, as in other federal states.
As far as trends go, Gohritz says light point shooting is becoming more popular with teenagers and children. Archery is also finding more and more followers, and the trend towards blowgun shooting is coming to Thuringia from Bavaria. In principle, however, the developments differ depending on the focus of the respective club. According to Gohritz, the shooting sport has many fans in the Free State, especially in the region around the weapon town of Suhl and in northern Thuringia.
Almost all of the 12 members of Ukraine's Paralympic national shooting team, who were staying in Suhl for protection, have since returned home, Gohritz said. The athletes were evacuated from Odessa in April as a result of the Ukraine war and found accommodation in Thuringia.
