Germany Announces 8-Swimmer Roster for 2014 Youth Olympic Games

Germany has announced an 8-swimmer roster for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games that will include double-duty from some of the top swimmers on the European Junior Championships roster as well.

Alexander Kunert (SV Gelnhausen 1924),
Maximilian Pilger (SSF Bonn 05),
Marek Ulrich (SV Halle/Saale),
Damian Wierling (SG Essen),
Kathrin Demler (SG Essen),
Mandy Feldbinder (SV Halle/Saale, alle Schwimmen)
Patricia Wartenberg (Wassersportfreunde von 1898 Hannover)
Julia Willers (SV Halle/Saale, alle Schwimmen)

“The Youth Olympic Games for athletes is an important step to get them a bit closer to their Olympic dream,” said DSV President Christa Thiel “There the athletes can collect experience that give them motivation on the way to qualifying for the ‘big games.’ Maybe we can see one or the other again in two years in Rio de Janeiro. “

The strength of this team will be the men’s 400 free relay. With Kunert swimming a 51.3, Ulrich swimming a 50.8, Pilger going 54.8, and Wierling going 49.6, the medal-winning potential is there. On the strength of Pilger, who is a 1:02.2 in the 100 breaststroke, the Germans will have a good shot at repeating their bronze medal performance in the 400 medley relay from Singapore in 2010 as well.

Wierling’s best time in the 100 free would have won that event in 2010, but of course the competition there will be through-the-roof this year with Brazilian Matheus Santana and Russian Evgeny Sedov, both of whom have been 48’s in the 100 free, coming to Nanjing.

The women’s side is not as relay-oriented as the men’s. 17-year old Kathrin Demler is a medal threat in the women’s 400 free; she has a lifetime best of 4:15.20 from the summer of 2013, and though she hasn’t been close to that time in 2014, next weekend in the Netherlands will be a good test to see if she’s just saved her tapers for the biggest meets.

Patricia Wartenberg is another distance freestyler, who’s been 4:12.5 in the 400 in long course (she was a best time this summer) plus 8:36 in the 800. She’s a very strong medal candidate. Feldbinder is a 1:02-low backstroker; similarly to Wierling in the men’s sprints, Demler’s best would have been medal-worthy in 2010, but in 2014 she’ll have to drop to wind up on the podium, especially with the Americans sending a backstroke-heavy group.

And last, but certainly not least, is Julia Willers, a training partner of Feldbinder. She’s a 1:08.3/2:27.4 breaststroker over long course meters, and with a relatively weak breaststroke group entered across-the-board, is another very good medal hope, and perhaps even a gold medal hope. In total, this German team will be trying to outdo the three medal performance from 2010 (1 silver, 2 bronze). A good performance should get them there, and a great performance should put them well beyond that tally.