20 East German Coaches Contact West Germans

Twenty East German national sports coaches have contacted the West German Olympic Committee in the past two days to announce they are in West Germany and want to coach that nation’s teams, the president of the West German Olympic Committee said Tuesday in an interview with the Washington Post.

Willy Daume, who organized the 1972 Munich Olympics and is leading the effort to hold the 2004 Olympic Games in Berlin, said the coaches include “some names that are very famous in the East German sports world. These are the very best, from nearly every sport, including football (soccer), cycling, wrestling and weightlifting.”

Daume said the West Germans are not seeking defectors from the vaunted East German sports machine, but will nonetheless welcome the coaches and find them coaching positions immediately.