Jens MILBRADT new German national coach for men's artistic gymnastics

(c) MINKUSimages

At the start of the new calendar year 2025, Jens MILBRADT, who has been the national coach for junior gymnastics for many years, will take over as the men's national coach for artistic gymnastics. The 55-year-old Berliner with roots in Halle, former national gymnast of the GDR and also of reunified Germany, who already did valuable work as national coach for junior gymnasts from 2002 to 2007 and again in this position since 2013, already celebrated a significant victory in 2006 in Volos, Greece, with the victory of his boys at the European Junior Championships, which had a significant influence on the generally positive development of German men's gymnastics in the following years. Like his previous predecessor, Olympic champion Valeri Belenki, Jens Milbradt is also a thoroughbred athlete with an excellent academic education at Berlin's Humboldt University, who was already spotted and trained as a talent in his pre-school years at what was then a district training centre in Halle ...

The son of former German national coach Klaus Milbradt was also in the GDR's last World Championship squad and won the silver medal in Stuttgart in 1989 behind the Soviets and ahead of China.
<< Jens Milbradt won the last international medals for the declining GDR gymnastics nation in Lausanne the following year as two-time European vice-champion (pommel horse and still rings), and was a member of the very first reunited German sports team after reunification at the 1990 Artistic Gymnastics Masters in Munich, on the eve of German Reunification Day.
He then competed for the reunified Germany at the first individual world championships in Paris in 1992, was a substitute gymnast at the world championships in Birmingham in 1993 despite multiple injury handicaps, then ended his active career in 1994 and is still one of the most prominent German gymnastics coaches today!
(* ... see also ► more biographical information)

The former German head coach Valeri Belenki from Stuttgart will continue to contribute his expertise to the national team after four years, first as an Olympic coach and then as head coach. However, he will shift the focus of his work back to the national base in Stuttgart, where he will take over the supervision of squad athletes in home training, according to the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB), which recognises the achievements of the Olympic champion, who was still a member of the ex-Soviet CIS team in Barcelona in 1992: "Valeri Belenki has provided important impetus over the past four years and formed strong teams for the World and European Championships as well as two Olympic Games, for which we are very grateful to him. The 2021 Olympic silver medal and Lukas Dauser's 2023 world title on parallel bars were very special highlights during this time," explains Germany's DTB Sports Director Thomas Gutekunst.

Handover between two top specialists (c) MINKUSimages
Jens Milbradt (55; Berlin) - Valeri Belenki (55; Stuttgart).

Before taking over as national coach, Jens Milbradt said: ‘It is an honour for me to have been selected for the position of head coach. I approach this new task with great respect and commitment. There are major challenges ahead of us. On the one hand, there will be a personnel upheaval in the national team, and on the other hand, the far-reaching changes in the new Code de Pointage will present the gymnasts and coaches with major tasks’ and at the same time emphasises the team spirit. ‘It will take the support of everyone - gymnasts, coaches and national gymnastics associations - to overcome these challenges and enable sporting development.’"
So the German Gymnastics Federation must therefore fill the position of national coach for young gymnasts, which Jens Milbradt still holds until the end of the year.
(c) gymmedia according Information from the DTB