Detlef Ultsch

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Detlef Ultsch, 2012

Detlef Ultsch (born November 7, 1955 in Sonneberg ) is the first German judo world champion.

Beginning as a teenager in Sonneberg

Detlef Ultsch grew up with seven younger siblings in Sonneberg. His judoka career began in 1968 when his father registered him for judo training with SV Dynamo Sonneberg . He was a very committed, particularly talented judo student and achieved his first competitive successes in 1969. It was an advantage that SV Dynamo Sonneberg had motivated trainers and several talented judoka in the children and youth sector who challenged his ambition. After two years, the talent scouts at GDR level had already targeted him in the competitions for the children's and youth spartakiad, but were unable to properly assess his performance. In men's training, he developed an excellent physique at the age of 14, had very good reflexes and was exceptionally quick. In Sonneberg, however, he lacked training partners who could have brought him further technically. The competition observers also noticed that he was not only able to fight well and successfully, but that he often burst into tears after his few defeats. He said in person in 1980 in the Neue Berliner Illustrierte : “At the beginning of my career I howled like a castle dog after every defeat before I learned to direct my ambition in the right direction. Losing is just as learned as success. ” In addition, as a youth in his weight class at the national level, Harald Heinke from SC Leipzig had a competitor in front of him who had incomparably better training conditions and who would make his way to the top in the long run seemed to obstruct.

Change to the sports club in Berlin

After graduating from school in 1972, he stayed in Sonneberg and trained as a construction machinist at the VEB Landbaukombinat. During this time he continued to train tirelessly, refined his special techniques , especially the left and right shoulder throw, became even stronger physically and gained the necessary psychological stability in dealing with defeat. In Randori he developed his own lifting and throwing technique , with which he often surprised opponents in the light middleweight division . Later - as a member of the SC Dynamo Hoppegarten - he even defeated the West German champion Fred Marhenke in a team fight against VfL Wolfsburg using this lifter technique . First, however, Detlef Ultsch prepared himself very thoroughly in theory and practice for the first Dan exam , which he passed in the summer of 1973, in his Sonneberg homeland club in 1973. Until then, he had not received any medals at the GDR championships for young people and juniors and only gained special attention as a judoka in the Suhl district . With great persistence, the Judo section of SV Dynamo Sonneberg received the invitation to a non-binding, one-time trial training session at SC Dynamo Hoppegarten . At the age of almost 18, he convinced the club coach of his abilities. As a Dan bearer, he got the chance to move to SC Dynamo Hoppegarten in Berlin in the late summer of 1973 . Associated with this was after completing his professional training as a sports soldier with the Feliks Dzierzynski Guard Regiment . In 1975 he defeated Harald Heinke, who had become European champion that year, in the final fight for the GDR junior championship. Under the guidance of the junior trainer Helmut Hempel and the much tougher training conditions in the sports club , it took about a year until the Sonneberg judo talent had left the medium weight class and fought their way to the national top in the medium weight class.

Time as an active world-class judoka in the middleweight class

In the 1976 Olympic year, he finally achieved his breakthrough in major competitions at national and international level. That year he was GDR junior champion, third in the GDR senior championships, third in the European championships and took part in the Olympic Games in Montréal as a member of the GDR national team. In 1977 he won the European Cup with the SC Dynamo Hoppegarten team . As a member of the GDR selection team, he won the silver medal behind Aleksandrs Jackēvičs at the 1978 European Judo Championships for men . Detlef Ultsch dominated the middleweight class in the GDR almost unchallenged until 1984 and was GDR champion six times. At the end of the 1970s, under the athletic leadership of his trainer Dietmar Hötger , the Sonneberg judo talent had become a Berlin world-class judoka . He celebrated his greatest sporting success as an active athlete in 1979 in Paris and 1983 in Moscow with the two-time victory at the World Judo Championships in middleweight (up to 86 kg). His preferred special technique was the Seoi Nage with a Kawaishi entrance. After he won the bronze medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow , he concentrated his training entirely on the Olympic Judo competitions in Los Angeles in 1984 . There he wanted to start as one of the favorites with a good chance of an Olympic victory. Because of the boycott of the Summer Olympics in 1984 by the GDR, however, his preparations and hopes were in vain. He then retired from international competitive sport and began his coaching career in his Berlin club. The four-time East German champion Roland Borawski from SC Leipzig was the successor in his weight class at national level . In 1987 Detlef Ultsch received the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver.

Success as an active judoka in the middleweight class

  • 1976 - European championship third, GDR championship third, GDR junior champion
  • 1977 - European championship third, GDR champion
  • 1978 - Vice European Champion, GDR Champion
  • 1979 - World champion, European championship third, GDR champion
  • 1980 - Olympic third, European championship third
  • 1981 - Third in the world championship, GDR champion
  • 1982 - European championship third, GDR champion
  • 1983 - World Champion, European Championship third
  • 1984 - GDR champion

Full-time judo trainer

In the 1980s, Detlef Ultsch, who had been promoted to officer due to his sporting success as a sports soldier at SC Dynamo Hoppegarten, gradually took over as a trainer in the junior division of the German Judo Association of the GDR. In 1991, he and his judo instructor Dietmar Hötger were appointed to the DJB's coaching staff and until the end of 2008 he was responsible for the national junior team as a full-time national coach. In 2009 Detlef Ultsch succeeded Frank Wieneke as national coach for men.

Success as a national coach

  • 2009 - World Championship bronze medal ( Ole Bischof )
  • 2010 - World Cup silver medal ( Andreas Tölzer ); two European Championship bronze medals ( Benjamin Behrla , Andreas Tölzer)
  • 2011 - World Cup silver medal (Andreas Tölzer); two European Championship bronze medals (Ole Bischof, team)
  • 2012 - Olympic silver medal (Ole Bischof); two Olympic bronze medals ( Dimitri Peters , Andreas Tölzer); European Championship bronze medal ( Christophe Lambert )
  • 2013 - three world championship bronze medals (Andreas Tölzer, Dimitri Peters, team); EM bronze medal (team)
  • 2014 - two world championship bronze medals ( Karl-Richard Frey , team); three European Championship bronze medals ( Sven Maresch , André Breitbarth , team)
  • 2015 - World Cup silver medal (Karl-Richard Frey); World Cup bronze medal (Dimitri Peters); European Championship bronze medal ( Alexander Wieczerzak )

After his 61st birthday, Detlef Ultsch handed over the post of national coach for men to Richard Trautmann , who had been named as his successor by the DJB-Führunng in November 2016. Detlef Ultsch took over judo training for the Federal Police as a trainer in Berlin in 2017 .

Others

Detlef Ultsch, whose wife is also from Sonneberg, lives in Berlin. As a member of SC Berlin (SCB), he is connected to the sports club that, as the successor to SC Dynamo Berlin, took on the judoka of SC Dynamo Hoppegarten, with whom he achieved international success as an active player. Together with his friend Jochen Bech , he looked after the SCB Bundesliga team, which won the 1992 European Cup. His son Christian , who belonged to the DJB national team and took part in the Judo World Championships in Cairo in 2005, fought in the judo Bundesliga in the -90 kg weight class for the SCB. Since September 2017, Detlef Ultsch has been promoting the Sonneberg judoka Doménik Schönefeldt , who was already internationally successful as a member of the DJB youngsters and the national junior team.

At Detlef Ultsch's suggestion, the DJB and the editors of its specialist body Judo Magazin founded the non-profit aid association “Judoka für Judoka eV” (JfJ), which started its work in February 2011.

Web links

Commons : Detlef Ultsch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Kimmel: NBI-Sportleralbum: Judoka Detlef Ultsch. Neue Berliner Illustrierte 2/1980
  2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , May 2, 1987, p. 10
personal data
SURNAME Ultsch, Detlef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first German judo world champion
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Sonneberg