Gert-Dietmar Klause

Gert-Dietmar Klause
nation	German Democratic Republic
birthday	25th March 1945 (age 75)
place of birth	Reumtengrün ,  Germany
size	184 cm
Weight	77 kg
Career
society	SC Dynamo Klingenthal
Trainer	Hannes Braun
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 1 × 1 × 0 ×
winter Olympics silver 1976 Innsbruck 50 km classic  Nordic World Ski Championships silver 1970 Vysoké Tatry 4 × 10 km gold 1974 Falun 4 × 10 km GDR ski championships gold 1968 15 km gold 1968 30 km gold 1968 4 × 10 km relay gold 1969 30 km gold 1969 50 km gold 1969 4 × 10 km relay gold 1970 4 × 10 km relay gold 1971 4 × 10 km relay gold 1972 50 km gold 1973 15 km gold 1974 4 × 10 km relay gold 1975 4 × 10 km relay gold 1976 30 km gold 1976 50 km gold 1976 4 × 10 km relay gold 1977 15 km gold 1977 50 km gold 1977 4 × 10 km relay gold 1978 15 km gold 1978 50 km

Gert-Dietmar Klause (born March 25, 1945 in Reumtengrün ) is a former German cross-country skier .

Klause was a distance specialist for the 30 kilometers and 50 kilometers, but also achieved good results in the 15 kilometers and in the 4 × 10 kilometer relay. Klause started for the SC Dynamo Klingenthal and internationally for the GDR . At the 1976 Winter Olympics , he was the first German ever to win an Olympic medal, namely silver, on the 50 kilometers. Only Axel Teichmann was able to repeat this success 34 years later at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. At the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1970 in Czechoslovakia, he took second place in the 4 × 10 km relay together with Gerd Heßler , Axel Lesser and Gerhard Grimmer . At the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1974 in Falun, Sweden, the GDR won the 4 × 10 km relay race with the same team line-up.

Gert-Dietmar Klause is also a multiple GDR champion. So far he is the only German and the first runner not from the Scandinavian peninsula or Finland to win the Wasalauf . The GDR sports leadership wanted to organize a cross-country skiing competition in the mid-1970s, to which Swedish runners should also come. The Swedish opposite side agreed on the condition that GDR athletes take part in the Vasa run. One of the athletes sent was Klause, who was the first to cross the finish line in this famous cross-country skiing competition in 1975 in the record time of 4:20:29 hours. The race was exciting and the finish line was very tight, so that contrary to tradition, the wreath girl could not hand the winner's wreath to the first one in the last 100 meters before the finish line, as the second, Åke Wingskog , ran just a few seconds behind Klause, so the Handing over the wreath whose victory would have endangered.

Klause had his most successful phase in sport between 1970 and 1977 and, together with Gerhard Grimmer, is one of the most successful German cross-country skiers. In the early 1990s he took part in the Wasalauf again as a recreational athlete and achieved a respectable placement just under the best 700 runners with 5:27 hours.

In 1974 and 1976 Gert-Dietmar Klause was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze.

Doping in the GDR

In 1972, anabolic steroids were used at Klause in the run-up to the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo .

Web links

• Gert-Dietmar Klause in the database of the International Ski Association (English)
• Gert-Dietmar Klause in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ^ A dozen questions to Gert-Dietmar Klause , in: Neues Deutschland from Wednesday, February 18, 1970, page 5.
2. ↑ ^{a b} WDR ZeitZeichen for the 90th anniversary of the run, March 19, 2012
3. ^ ND , May 18, 1974, p. 3
4. ^ ND , March 25, 1976, p. 3
5. ↑ Journalist criticizes Stasi clanships in Thuringian winter sports , Thüringer Allgemeine , February 18, 2011