Top-class sport
Honour: RUB students at the Olympics
As part of this year's Annual Academic Ceremony of the Ruhr University Bochum, University Sports honoured nine students who took part in the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Yesterday, 24 November, the Ruhr University Bochum's Annual Academic Celebration took place in the Audimax. As part of the celebrations, the official handover of the rectorate from Prof. Dr. Axel Schölmerich to Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Martin Paul took place. This handover was accompanied by greetings, some of them very personal, from Bochum's Lord Mayor Thomas Eiskirch and the Science Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen. In addition, many people were honoured for their achievements.
In addition, during the event, University Sports Bochum honoured those RUB students who participated in the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The head of university sports Ines Lenze led through the programme item together with the new rector.
The following RUB top-class athletes took part in the Olympic Games in Tokyo:
- Caroline Arft (canoe sprint)
- Lisa Höpink (swimming)
- Poul Zellmann (swimming)
- Leonie Menzel (rowing)
- Michaela Staelberg (rowing)
- Malte Jakschik (rowing)
- Martin Sauer (rowing)
- Jakob Schneider (rowing)
- Johannes Weißenfeld (rowing)
Fortunately, six of the aforementioned athletes were able to be present in person at the Annual Academic Ceremony. In addition to swimmer Lisa Höpink and rower Michaela Staelberg, the four silver medallists from the rowing mens eight, Malte Jakschik, Jakob Schneider, Johannes Weißenfeld and cox Martin Sauer, were also honoured. In recognition, the Olympic participants each received a certificate and a soft toy of the new university sports mascot, Ruby the giraffe.
As a university, we want to create the best possible conditions for the achievement of outstanding performance. The fact that we are involved as a "partner university of elite sport" and thus enable "dual careers" of elite sport and study, I understand as a significant example of how exactly this can succeed.
The integration of the honouring of the Olympic participants into the annual academic celebration once again shows how important the topic of top-class sport and the promotion of top-class athletes is at RUB. In the project "Partner University of Top-Class Sport", University Sports Bochum currently supports around 50 cadre athletes in reconciling their studies with competitive sport.
