From November 22 to 24, the German University Championships (DHM) Swimming 2024 took place in the indoor swimming pool in Munich’s Olympic Park. The championship is organized once a year by different colleges and universities. Special attention is paid to promoting university sports and the integration of students into competitive sports. The competition not only offers the opportunity to win medals, but also to gain valuable experience and network with other sports enthusiasts.
In addition to competitions in various disciplines, such as freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly, a team competition is also held in which the universities compete against each other. This year, 411 participants from 48 universities, including two foreign universities, competed against each other in Munich.
Fabian Hansmann, an engineering student, represented Hof University of Applied Sciences at this year’s DHM.
The campuls editorial team spoke to Fabian about his participation and experiences.
Fabian, it was great that you represented our university at this year’s German University Swimming Championships in Munich. How did you get involved?
Fabian Hansmann: I found out about the university championships through an advertisement. It was distributed at our club, ATS Kulmbach, by a former DHM participant.
Which competitions did you take part in and what results did you achieve?
I swam the 100m butterfly, 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle. Unfortunately, the times were rather sobering as I had been ill with a respiratory infection for the three weeks before the DHM.
Where did the other DHM participants come from?
The other participants came from universities all over Germany. In my opinion, the teams with the most participants came from the TU Munich, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (University of Karlsruhe) and the University of Bochum/Cologne. The team from the University of Karlsruhe in particular created a great atmosphere.
How did the championships go?
Basically like any normal swimming competition. The individual disciplines are divided into individual competitions. One competition per gender for each discipline. For distances under 200m, there were both preliminary rounds and finals. Due to the number of starts, the competition program was divided into three days.
Was there also a social program where you could network with the other participants?
Yes, there was on Saturday evening. The central university sports department in Munich organized a party in the local student pub “Die Bierstube”. The party was a lot of fun and it was a great opportunity to talk to other students and get to know them.
You were the only representative of our university this year. How can university members and swimming enthusiasts take part in the championships next year?
If there is interest in participating in the University Swimming Championships 2025 together, it would be best if we networked and organized ourselves university-wide. Just send me an e-mail to my university address fhansmann@hof-university.de.
Thank you, Fabian, for the interview!
