From Friday German athletes will be competing for Olympic medals at the 23rd Winter Games in the South Korean city of PyeongChang. Their “basecamp” during the games until 25 February will be the ‘Deutsches Haus’, where they can meet team colleagues, media representatives, officials, business partners and politicians and where they will celebrate their successes.
Since the Sydney Games in 2000 Messe Düsseldorf has been commissioned by “Deutsche Sport Marketing” – the official marketing agency of the German Olympic Sports Confederation and the National Paralympic Committee Germany – to design the central meeting point for German athletes – from planning, through implementation to operation of the House. As international event professionals the trade fair organisers from the Rhine are ideal for this task and have become a highly appreciated partner for DSM, which is responsible for the ‘Deutsche Häuser’ as the official marketing agency of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). “We are happy to have such an experienced and well-versed partner by our side as Messe Düsseldorf, a partner we can trust implicitly for the successful operation of the ‘Deutsche Häuser’,” explains Claudia Wagner, member of the management board and Head of Media & Communication at DSM.
Werner M. Dornscheidt, the President & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf, is proud of this longstanding cooperation: “We are pleased that DSM has already depended on our international event expertise for 18 years now and are proud to be able to co-shape a worthy meeting point for Team Germany. One guarantee for success in this complex task alongside our decades of experience acquired in the organisation and holding of trade fair projects abroad is our excellent international network. The ‘Deutsches Haus’ is a project we back with all our heart and soul and one that forms a key component of our wide-based commitment to sport. It also has powerful feedback effects for Düsseldorf’s international position as a business hub and sports city,” stresses Dornscheidt.
Since the Vancouver Games 2010 Messe Düsseldorf in cooperation with DSM and the National Paralympics Committee Germany (DBS) has also been in charge of planning and running the ‘Deutsche Häuser’ during the Paralympics. Here it benefits from the experience gained at the leading international trade fair REHACARE INTERNATIONAL – International Trade Fair and Congress Rehabilitation, Care, Prevention, Integration. “Disability sports are my topic! I am delighted that Messe Düsseldorf with its involvement in the ‘Deutsche Häuser’ can make a contribution to inclusion and integration of disability sports and its athletes,” says trade fair boss Dornscheidt.
For the 2018 Winter Olympic Games the ‘Deutsches Haus’ boasting 1,500 square metres of space will open its doors at the Birch Hill Golf Club, in the mountains of PyeongChang and in the immediate vicinity of all sports hotspots. The ‘Alpensia Jumping Park’ with the towering high ski jump can be seen from the ‘Deutsches Haus’. Located at an even shorter distance are the Olympic and Paralympic villages as well as the ‘Alpensia Resort’ that includes further competition sites in the ‘Mountain Cluster’ – this is as close as it gets.
10 March will then see the German Paralympic team take over and the Birch Hill Golf Club will enter its ‘second round’ as the German Paralympics House. Under the name ‘Alpenhaus’ it will be home to not one but as many as three nations – this is because the National Paralympic Committee Germany will share its home with athletes from the Austrian and Swiss delegations for the first time.
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