Max Hartung

Maximilian Hartung (born 8 October 1989) is a German right-handed sabre fencer, two-time team European champion, two-time individual European champion, 2014 team world champion, and two-time Olympian.

Hartung is chairman of the Athletes Commission of the German Olympic Sports Confederation and the founding president of Athleten Deutschland e.V. He was a member of the Sporthilfe supervisory board for four years, four years in the board of the German Fencing Federation and two years in the board of the German Olympic Committee as the voice of the athletes. He completed his studies in politics, sociology and economics at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen and the Universiteit Gent.

With Athletes Germany, Hartung achieved a victory over IOC before the Federal Cartel Office. The advertising guidelines for German athletes at Olympic Games have been relaxed. Following public criticism, the German Armed Forces have changed their sports promotion program after talks between Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen, Silke Kassner and Max Hartung. The Athletes Germany e. V, which he co-founded, is supported by the federal government with 450,000 euros per year and is the first athlete representation worldwide that is independent of the NOK. In addition, on the initiative of Athletes Germany, the federal government introduced direct athlete support of 7 million euros for the first time and passed a pension package for athletes.

Hartung drew attention to himself around the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. He was the first athlete in the world to declare, before the official decision of the IOC, that he would not compete in the Olympic Games in July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, out of consideration for the population living in Japan and global public health.