With seven wins in seven qualifying games, the German volleyball players secured their Olympic tickets for Paris 2024. Star attacker Georg Grozer celebrates this emotionally in the Sportschau interview – and now has two big dreams.
By Luise Kropff and Christian Hornung
One of the two dreams connects the family with his sport, the other is a very big and ambitious one on the volleyball field: In an interview with Sportschau, Georg Grozer wishes to experience the Olympic Games together with his daughter Leana, who is currently in the Debuted for the German women’s national team at the age of 16.
And for the men’s team he is hoping for nothing less than Olympic medals in the French capital!
Hope for an Olympic medal
Grozer on what he wants to convey to his teammates before the big event next summer: “You simply can’t be afraid of this tournament, you have to enjoy everything, take everything with you and get the best out of it. Of course, you also have to be mentally strong to process all of this in a short time, but you just have to get the best out of it. My goals aren’t over with qualification, but I hope that we can win a medal.”
“Maybe Leana will make it into the squad”
About his unbroken motivation and a possible generational duet with Leana Grozer, who plays for Schwerin in the Bundesliga, he says: “It’s the love for this sport that has kept me involved for so long. The passion just doesn’t go away and that That’s a good thing too. Of course I always wanted to make my children proud, they are 16 and 13, the older one has now made her debut in the senior national team. You can dream: Maybe she’ll make it into the Olympic squad Hope dies last, that’s what I keep saying.”
“For me as a grandpa it’s just crazy”
Grozer has to fight back tears when he talks about the moment when qualification was secured with the converted match ball in the 3-0 win against Qatar: “It’s still hard to talk about it now, it makes me cry. It is an indescribable feeling, I’m still trying to process it. For me, as an old hand and grandpa of the team, to experience this again is simply amazing. We had the best teams in the world in the group and beat everyone – there’s chaos inside of me , happiness and lots of feelings.”
To convey relaxedness and faith
The exceptional attacker describes his role in the team as follows: “I tried to tell the boys what we can actually do. Before, not many people believed that we could do it. I have a slightly different mentality and I give it that Boys’ relaxed attitude – but also the belief that you can achieve anything if you never doubt it. Giving the boys this feeling on and off the field certainly helped a lot. But conversely, the boys help me just as much, as an old man Persevering and also learning through her young perspective – that’s just a cool combination.”
