Jens-Peter Berndt

Jens-Peter Berndt
Jens-Peter Berndt at the GDR Swimming Championships in Magdeburg (1984)
Personal information
Surname:	Jens-Peter Berndt
Nation:	German Democratic Republic
Swimming style (s) :	Locations
Birthday:	17th August 1963
Place of birth:	Potsdam
Size:	1.98 m
Weight:	81 kg
Medal table

Jens-Peter Berndt (born August 17, 1963 in Potsdam ) is a former German swimmer who competed for the GDR .

Career

Berndt was eleven-year-old five-time Spartakiad winner in 1975 . When his children's and youth sports school moved from Brandenburg to Potsdam a month later , however, Berndt ended competitive sports for the time being. It wasn't until three years later that he decided to start swimming again.

On May 23, 1984, he swam a world record in Magdeburg in 4: 19.61 minutes on the 400 meter multi-level course. In 1981 he was GDR runner-up on both layer courses and fifth over 400 meters in the European championship in Split . At the World Championships in Guayaquil , the following year, he won the silver medal over 400 meters and was fourth in the 200 meter medley. At the European Championships in Rome in 1983 , he finished second on both routes. He was unable to take advantage of his good form at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles due to the boycott of the games by the GDR and only won both individual medley courses at the substitute games in Moscow, where, however, he set his own world record on the 400 meter medley course with 4: 18.29 min improved.

Berndt, who studied education in the early 1980s, started for the ASK Vorwärts Potsdam . There the sub-lieutenant of the NVA was trained by Lutz Wanja . Due to differences with his coach and his club, Berndt decided to leave on January 7, 1985 during a stopover in Oklahoma . However , he did not receive the desired US citizenship immediately, which is why he first went to the Federal Republic in 1987, for which he wanted to take part in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul . In 1988 he swam DSV records over both individual medley relays and became German champion over the 400 meter medley. In Seoul, he finished sixth on his parade route. Then Berndt went back to the USA and studied Public Relations and Marketing at the University of Alabama . After graduating, he worked for Mark McCormack's International Management Group and trained as a programmer in Alabama .

literature

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

Web links

Commons : Jens-Peter Berndt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Jens-Peter Berndt in the Swimrankings.net database (English)
• Jens-Peter Berndt in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )