Dirk Burghaus
Chairman of the Board Sportklinik Hellersen
Have article read aloud
The Olympic and Paralympic Games right on our doorstep – how wonderful would that be? I hope you, dear readers, share this enthusiasm. Because this idea could actually become reality soon: Germany is currently in the bidding process for the 2036, 2040, or 2044 Games. Four cities and regions have put themselves forward as potential venues – including the Rhine-Ruhr region. The Landessportbund NRW has developed a convincing, sustainable, and forward-looking concept to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games to our region.
This concept includes not only a reliable infrastructure. Equally important is the highest level of medical care for the athletes – an area in which the Sportklinik Hellersen has been setting standards for many years. As the DOSB's sports medicine examination center and part of the North Rhine-Westphalia sports family, we play a central role and are the first point of contact for serious injuries. Optimal care is crucial to ensuring the highest standards for top athletes. This includes, for example, the ability to surgically treat cruciate ligament injuries within 24 hours of an accident.
In this special edition of Hellersen Insight, we focus entirely on the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In an interview with Stefan Klett, President of Landessportbund NRW and the sponsor of the Sportklinik Hellersen, Sporthilfe NRW e.V., and Michael Scharf, Director of Competitive Sports at the LSB NRW, you can learn more about the Rhine-Ruhr region's bid, its chances and advantages, and the role of the Sportklinik Hellersen.
At the same time, we would like to give you a little insight into how closely our medical team is involved in competitive sports and why the Sportklinik Hellersen is an important component of the Olympic bid. Whether it's Chief of Conservative Orthopedics Dr. Stefan Nolte as the association physician for sport shooters or Dr. Tobias Schmenn as the team physician for the women's national team – our expertise extends far beyond the clinic. Top athletes such as Tatjana Schilling, multiple heptathlon champion, trust in our treatment. In this issue, she reports on how Dr. Volker Stoll, chief of knee surgery and sports traumatology, helped her return to training several times after injuries.
Let yourself be infected by Olympic fever, sporting passion, and enthusiasm for cutting-edge medicine in this special edition. But for us, the Olympics mean more than just top-class sport. What we learn in competitive sports benefits all patients — from professionals to recreational athletes to people who have undergone hip or knee surgery. Just as Formula 1 delivers innovations for everyday life, our experience from the Olympics and international top-level sport flows directly into the care of society. The Sportklinik Hellersen is our little Olympics – here, top-level medicine benefits society as a whole.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue.
Yours, Dirk Burghaus
For better readability, gender-neutral language is not used and the generic masculine form is used.
