Berlin is a city of leisure sports and top-class competitive sport. The facilities include the SC Siemensstadt national model project, regional top-class competitive training centres, regional trainers employed by the Berlin sports association for the most successful sports, funding of association trainers and the provision of social support for sportsmen and sportswomen by the Berlin sports aid fund. The Olympic support centre, founded in 1987, assures the best possible preparation of our top sports competitors for their respective season highlights. About 650 athletes train here in 20 sports disciplines. With this support for top sports competitors, excellent results are achieved in sports medicine and physiotherapy, in social and psychological care of active sports persons and in cooperation with scientists and trainers. The sports school of the Berlin sports association has special importance as the central training institution for qualified staff. Here, basic and advanced instruction is provided for sports and gymnastics teachers, trainers, exercise instructors and organisers.

They pay special attention to the special needs of senior citizens’ sports, the leisure and fitness sector and the use of sport as a means of preventive care and health preservation.

The Berlin sports association, the central association for sports in Berlin, has about 525,000 members in roughly 2000 clubs. 40 per cent of the members are younger than 27. Football clubs have about 93,000 members, gymnastics clubs about 55,000 and tennis clubs about 37,000. Berlin’s associations and clubs hold about 3000 public sports courses throughout the city and about 900 sporting events are open to all comers.

Particularly important areas are the promotion of youth work and youth supervision by the Berlin youth sports association. The programme “Children and youth sport 2000” and the links between schools and sports clubs show the efforts that are being made to integrate sports more into youth and social work and the public and private youth facilities. Youth sport clubs, girls’ centres and mobile teams support these aims. In a city with a high proportion of foreign citizens, sport is an important element of social integration. The same applies to integration of young people with a tendency to use violence. Sport is a great help here.