Kurt Helbig (weightlifter)

Kurt Helbig medal table
Weightlifting
Germany
Olympic games
gold	1928 Amsterdam	Light
European Championship
bronze	1929 Vienna	Light
gold	1930 Munich	medium
silver	1931 Luxembourg	Light

Kurt Helbig (born June 28, 1901 in Rödlitz , † January 30, 1975 in Plauen ) was a German weightlifter and Olympic champion in 1928 in the lightweight.

Life

Kurt Helbig's grave in Plauen Cemetery I

Kurt Helbig grew up in Plauen in the Vogtland , practiced boxing , lawn power sports and weightlifting as a teenager , but soon switched to weightlifting entirely. He was a trained butcher , but was unemployed for many years. Nevertheless, he increased his performance so enormously that he became Olympic champion at the Summer Olympics in Amsterdam in 1928 . After his return, his Olympic victory was enthusiastically celebrated in Plauen and he received a gift of 100 Reichsmarks from the city council . This amount was then deducted from his unemployment benefit . Even in 1932 he was not treated gently. Although he had won the Olympic elimination and was again a medal candidate at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , he was not sent because there was no money for travel expenses. Angry, he ended his career. The Kurt-Helbig-Halle and the Kurt-Helbig-Platz in Plauen were named after him. After his death in 1975 he was buried in Cemetery I in Plauen. His grave is now a listed building.

Sporting successes

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, OD = Olympic three-way fight, consisting of two-armed pushing, snatching and pushing, FK = pentathlon, consisting of OD and one-armed pulling and pushing, Le = lightweight, Mi = middleweight)

• 1928 gold medal , OS in Amsterdam, OD, Le, with 322.5 kg (90-97.5-135), together with Hans Haas , Austria , 322.5 (90.0, 97.5, 135.0) kg and before Arnout, France , 302.5 (85.0, 97.5, 120.0) kg;
• 1929 3rd place , EM in Vienna , OD, Le, with 287.5 kg (80-92.5-115), behind Robert Fein , Austria, 310 (95.0, 95.0, 120.0) kg and Eugen Jordan, Germany, 292 .5 (82.5, 87.5, 122.5) kg;
• 1930 1st place , EM in Munich , OD, Wed, with 337.5 kg (92.5-105-140), ahead of Galimberti, Italy , 322.5 (102.5, 97.5, 122.5) kg and Hipfinger, Austria, 305 (80.0, 92.5, 132.5) kg;
• 1931 2nd place , EM in Luxemburg , OD, Le, with 302.5 kg (82.5-95-125), behind Haas, 317.5 (90.0, 97.5, 130.0) kg. before Youssef, Egypt, 300.0 (90.0, 92.5, 117.5)

Success at German championships

• 1925 2nd place with 452.5 kg, FK, Le, behind Willi Reinfrank , Mannheim , 465 kg;
• 1926 3rd place with 445 kg, FK, Le, behind Reinfrank 455 kg and Hans Haas, Vienna, 452.5 kg;
• 1927 2nd place with 200 kg, OD, Le, behind Reinfrank, 305 kg;
• 1928 1st place with 330 kg, OD, Le, in front of Stephan, Magdeburg , 285 kg;
• 1929 2nd place with 432.5 kg, FK, Le, behind Jordan, Cannstatt, 437.5 kg;
• 1930 1st place with 325 kg, OD, Wed, ahead of Rudolf Ismayr , Munich , 312.5 kg;
• 1931 1st place with 300 kg, OD, Le, ahead of Murawski, Dortmund, 287.5 kg;
• 1932 1st place with 297.5 kg, OD, Le, ahead of Franz Thiersch , Erfurt , 295 kg.

World records

in two-armed tearing

• 1925 in Koblenz 105 kg Le

in two-armed thrusting

• 1925 in Plauen 124.5 kg Le
• 1928 in Amsterdam 135 kg le

in the Olympic three-way fight

• 1928 in Plauen 312.5 kg Le
• 1928 in Plauen 325 kg le
• 1928 in Koblenz 330 kg Le

Trivia

In 1959 Kurt Helbig gave a pair of his sports shoes to a young athlete in his hometown Plauen. These shoes have been on permanent loan from the SV04 Oberlosa sports club, which runs the Kurt-Helbig sports hall in Plauen , since September 2007 .

literature

• Werner Beuschel, Kerstin Scheit: An athlete career between success and unemployment: memories of the 1928 Olympic champion Kurt Helbig , in: Theory and Practice of Body Culture , 34 Issue 2 (1985), pp. 119–124.
• Gerlinde Rohr: Kurt Helbig's gold medal - an unusual story , in: Sportmuseum Leipzig, 2012, issue 2, pp. 23-25.

Web links

• Kurt Helbig in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Kurt Helbig Top Olympic Lifters of the 20th Century

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Website of the cemetery administration with reference to monument protection. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 29, 2013 ; Retrieved October 25, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.