Birgit Peter (rower)

Birgit Peter (born January 27, 1964 in Potsdam ) is a former rower who became Olympic champion in double sculls in 1988 for the GDR and in 1992 for Germany in double sculls .

Her career began in 1982 as a junior world champion in four-four . The rower from SG Dynamo Potsdam trained with Jutta Lau and became world champion in the adult class for the first time in 1985, together with Kristina Mundt , Jutta Hampe and Ramona Balthasar she won the quadruple scull title. In 1986 the boat was redesigned and won the world championship again with Jana Sorgers , Kerstin Hinze , Birgit Peter and Kerstin Pieloth . The following year, Jutta Hampe returned to the boat for Kerstin Hinze and Birgit Peter won her third world title in a row. In 1988 Peter switched to the double scull, at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul she won gold together with Martina Schröter . For this victory she was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold.

In 1989 Birgit Peter competed in the single and was second at the World Cup behind the Romanian Elisabeta Lipa . In 1990 Peter then won the world championship title in front of the Canadian Silken Laumann . In the winter of 1990/1991 Birgit Peter moved from Potsdam to Karlsruhe, where she trained under Sabine Dähne at Karlsruhe RV Wiking . In 1991 Birgit Peter completed her training as a medical-technical laboratory assistant and was unable to qualify for the national team. She came back before the 1992 Olympics and qualified in double fours. In Barcelona, ​​the boat with the cast of Kerstin Müller , Sybille Schmidt , Birgit Peter and Kristina Mundt won gold with a four-second lead over the Romanians.

Peter is married to the rower Christian Händle .

literature

• Volker Kluge : The great lexicon of GDR athletes. The 1000 most successful and popular athletes from the GDR, their successes and biographies. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-348-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , 12./13. November 1988, p. 4

Web links

• Birgit Peter at Worldrowing.com ( FISA database )
• Birgit Peter in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )