Paul Biedermann and arena, the suit maker, are extending their sponsorship deal by a year until 2013. The contract had originally lasted up to and including the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The new follows Dubai's withdrawal from hosting the 2013 world championships. One of the other bidders in that round was Hamburg. The arena deal would cover a home world championships for Biedermann should Hamburg wish to enter the fray once more in a new bidding round, the city and the DSV having already done much of the work necessary.
First and most important stop, however: London 2012. "I'm, very happy to extend my collaboration with arena and very proud of being a member of Team Elite Arena ... I have ambitious targets for the next Olympic Games in London ... I want to reach the top 3 [podium] and I'm working very hard to achieve those results."
As a world champion who got past Phelps in the water and Thorpe on the clock in Rome last year, Biedermann is already a medal, if not a title favourite for 2012, with results at Shangai 2011 world titles important to how the German enters Olympic year for that showdown with Phelps, assuming the American includes the 200m free in his schedule come London.
This week, TYR announced that it is the new kit sponsor for Germany but one of its top stars will wear arena at all meets in accordance with the DSV's relatively new policy of allowing swimmers to wear whatever technical race equipment they wish. Only kit bearing the TYR brand will be visible, however, when German swimmers race for the national team, the flexibility introduced to the German programme as a by-product of suit wars that saw German swimmers protest because they were not allowed to race on a fair basis in 2008, tied as they were to wearing adidas.
The saga caused schism between adidas, one of the world's biggest sports brands, and the DSV, though Biedermann's new girlfriend, Britta Steffen, remained loyal to her home brand, even pleading with adidas to make a 100% poly suit capable of competing with other similar suits in 2009. The Hydrofoil was born as a direct result of Steffen's plea to her sponsor.
Biedermann is currently preparing for German nationals and trials for the European Championships (Budapest, August) in Berlin from June 30 to July. Next month, he will race on the Mare Nostrum circuit as a warm-up for Budapest, where he will be favourite to lift the 200m and 400m freestyle crowns. After a world cup tour in the autumn, Biedermann, coached by Frank Embacher in Halle, near Leipzig, intends to round off his year at the world short-course championships in Dubai.
