Horst Meyer (rower)

Horst Meyer 2010 at a memorial event at the former so-called “foreigners' maternity home” in Godshorn

Horst Meyer (born June 20, 1941 in Hamburg-Harburg ; † January 24, 2020 in Lanzarote ) was a German rower who became Olympic champion with an eighth in 1968 .

Life

The European champions from 1964, Horst Meyer is on the far left

Meyer belonged since 1962 a. a. as batsman to the crew of the eight from the Ratzeburg Rowing Club (RRC); from 1962 to 1968, the eighth cared for by Karl Adam was German champion seven times in a row. At the first rowing world championships in Lucerne in 1962 , the RRC's boat became world champion. In 1963 and 1964 the boat became European champions. The European championships in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967 in the eighth were world championship level because the USA and Australia and / or New Zealand were always in competition. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, the Ratzeburg eighth was clearly defeated by the eighth from the United States and won silver.

After that, the Germany eight was replaced and competed at international championships as a racing community in which rowers from Lübeck, later also from Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Bingen and Wetzlar rowed together with the remaining Ratzeburgers. Horst Meyer Schlagmann stayed in this racing community and became European champion in 1965 and 1967 and world champion in Bled in 1966. In 1965 the eighth also won the Grand Challenge of the Henley Royal Regatta against the Olympic champion Vesper Boat Club from the USA. The highlight of Meyer's career was winning the 1968 Olympic Games .

In addition to his German championship successes in eighth, Meyer also won the USA championship in eighth in 1963 and in 1967 a German championship title in four-man without a helmsman .

Meyer is the holder of the Silver Laurel Leaf of the Federal Republic of Germany, a member of the teams of 1962 and 1968, athlete of the year 1966 of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and his successes have been recognized with the German Youth Cup of the German Rowing Association, which has been awarded annually since 1972 by his home club Der Hamburger und Germania Rowing Club honored from 1836.

After his sporting career, the graduate and technical college engineer and doctorate in business administration headed a management consulting company from 1980. In addition, he was a member of the advisory committee of the German Sports Aid Foundation for over thirty years and was elected several times as a personal member of the National Olympic Committee . In 2008 Meyer lost to Siegfried Kaidel in the election as chairman of the German Rowing Association . For his services to sport in Lower Saxony , he was included in the Lower Saxony Sports Honor Gallery of the Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 .
• Olaf Neumann: Horst Meyer , in Tigo Zeyen, Anne Weber-Ploemacher (ed.), Joachim Giesel (photos): 100 Hanoverian Heads , Hameln: CW Niemeyer Buchverlage, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8271-9251-6 and ISBN 3 -8271-9251-X , pp. 136f.

Web links

Commons : Horst Meyer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• German success at rowing world championships
• German successes at European rowing championships
• Interview 2008 with Meyer on rudern.de
• Horst Meyer in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Christoph Dannowski: Hanover's rowing legend Horst Meyer died surprisingly. Report on sportbuzzer.de, January 27, 2020. Accessed January 27, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Horst Dralle, Jens Gundlach, Kata Miszkiel-Deppe, Tom Seibert, Peter Schyga: We mourn Horst Meyer , obituary on the website of the Association Network Remembrance and Future in the Hannover Region eV from January 29, 2020
2. ↑ Sports report of the federal government to the Bundestag of September 23, 1973 - printed matter 7/1049, page 74