The application of the state capital Dresden and the German transplant sports club TransDia Sport Germany, supported by the Saxon state government, was successful in the final round at the highest decision-making body of the World Federation of Transplanted Sports.
The sports mayor of Dresden, Dr. Peter Lames, the chairwoman of TransDia Sport Germany, Gudrun Manuwald-Seemüller, and the head of Dresden city marketing, Corinne Miseer, had presented the Dresden application. In 2025, the World Transplant Games will come to Germany for the first time in their more than 40-year history.
The applicant team is happy together: “Dresden is good for the Games, the Games are good for Dresden. First-class sports facilities, short distances and well-rehearsed organizational structures have convinced the world association. Dresden is a modern top location for international sporting events. The approx. 2,000 athletes from all over the world who come to Dresden will feel at home in the state capital and will find first-class conditions.”
Federal Minister of Health Prof. Lauterbach also congratulated the club and the city of Dresden on the successful bid and wished them every success for the preparations for Games in 2025. The Minister of Social Affairs Petra Köpping: “The opportunity to host this important event World Transplant Games 2025 – in Germany, in the Free State of Saxony, in Dresden, is associated with a great honor. I was very happy to accompany and support this concern. This event can provide important impulses to bring the topic of organ donation even more clearly into the focus of the public and also to show the deserved appreciation to affected people and actors involved in this field. We are all looking forward to welcoming the participants of the World Transplant Games 2025 to the Saxon state capital.”
“We are very pleased that we were able to bring the World Transplant Games 2025 to Dresden together. This is a decisive stage in which we were able to convince the organizers of us as the ideal host in a one-and-a-half-year bidding competition,” says Corinne Miseer, Managing Director of Dresden Marketing GmbH.
World Transplant Games have been held every two years since 1978. About 2,000 athletes from more than 40 countries on all continents come together for a week to compete in various disciplines of athletics, cycling, swimming, tennis, table tennis and other sports. The WTG motivates many transplanted athletes especially to train. Through regular exercise, the transplanted organs function longer and better. In addition, the championships show that you can be fully capable again after an organ transplant.
Gudrun Manuwald-Seemüller associates the decision with another hope: “With the 2025 Games in Germany, we hope to give the thousands of terminally ill patients waiting for a donor organ in Germany a new perspective and to bring the German organ donation debate out of its despondency. The fact that the Dresden WTG team has driven the application forward with such commitment and professionalism gives us hope that this will succeed.”
Photo: World Transplant Games Federation