Jens Köppen

This article covers the rower. For the politician see Jens Koeppen .

Jens Köppen (born January 6, 1966 in Kyritz ) is a former rower from the German Democratic Republic who was active for the unified Germany from 1991. In 1988 he won the Olympic bronze medal with the double scull.

Köppen rowed for SG Dynamo Potsdam . He was twice junior world champion : 1983 in double sculls and 1984 in singles . From 1985 he was GDR champion in four-four five times in a row. In 1985 he also won his first international medal when the GDR double foursome consisting of Uwe Sägling , Rüdiger Reiche , Jens Köppen and Karl-Heinz Bußert won the silver medal behind the Canadian boat at the World Championships, for which he received the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver. He won his second big medal together with Steffen Bogs , Steffen Zühlke andHeiko Habermann at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, where the double sculls achieved bronze behind the boats from Italy and Norway. For this success he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze. After finishing fourth at the World Rowing Championships in 1989, Köppen's actual career ended.

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, ​​the German champion in the single from 1990 Christian Händle and the German champion in the lightweight single from 1991 Peter Uhrig competed in the double scull . After Uhrig and Handel won their lead, Jens Köppen stepped in for Peter Uhrig. Together with Christian Händle, he reached the B final, where he finished second.

Jens Köppen works as a tax advisor and is a volunteer at the Potsdamer Ruder-Gesellschaft .

literature

• Volker Kluge : Lexicon athletes in the GDR . New life, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-355-01759-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , October 15, 1986, p. 7
2. ↑ Neues Deutschland, 12./13. November 1988, p. 4

Web links

• Jens Köppen in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• German successes at world championships
• GDR championships in double sculls