Lutz Heßlich

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lutz Heßlich Road cycling
Lutz Heßlich (2014)
Lutz Heßlich (2014)
To person
Date of birth 17th January 1959
nation Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR German Democratic Republic
discipline Train (short term)
End of career 1988
Most important successes
Olympic games
1980, 1988 * gold- Sprint
UCI Track World Championships (amateurs)
1979, 1983, 1985, 1987 World Champion - Sprint
Last updated: September 14, 2019
Lutz Heßlich (center) as GDR champion in the 1988 sprint between Michael Huebner (left) and Bill Huck
Street of the medal winners in front of the Cottbus town hall with a gold medal for Heßlich
Lutz Heßlich's bicycle shop on the ground floor

Lutz Heßlich (born January 17, 1959 in Ortrand , Senftenberg district ) is a former German track cyclist .

Cycling career

Lutz Heßlich first played soccer at TSG Tettau , he learned to cycle at the age of seven, mainly so that he could go from school to school. He came into contact with cycling for the first time when a preliminary decision for the “Little Peace Ride ” took place at his school , which he won straight away. Wilfried Schulz (then the cycling trainer of BSG activist Lauchhammer) approached him and tried to get him excited about systematic training in the club. He joined the community and, like his community mates, trained mainly on the street.

Lutz Heßlich started on this path in 1968 with the BSG activist Lauchhammer with organized cycling and in 1972 switched to the children's and youth sports school in Cottbus . At the KJS he was initially a member of Eberhard Pöschke's training group, which also led Bernd Drogan and Hans-Joachim Hartnick to the top of the world. In the long run, however, the road races were too long for him, and he switched to the track cycling training group for short-term disciplines with Gerd Müller at the age of 15. Here at SC Cottbus under his coach Gerd Müller he developed into one of the most famous racing cyclists in the GDR and in the world. In 1976 and 1977 he was world champion in the junior track sprint. Immediately after the 1977 Junior World Championship, federation coach Dieter Hermann nominated him for the UCI World Championship in San Cristobal for men. He started alongside Jürgen Geschke (who, according to himself, was his role model) and Emanuel Raasch . He should originally use the participation to gain initial experience. Lutz Heßlich drove a furious tournament and won the bronze medal behind Geschke and Raasch at his first World Cup start. Years later, he was particularly proud of this achievement.

He managed to win an Olympic gold medal in the sprint every eight years . Daniel Morelon called him the best sprinter of the century after winning the Olympics in Seoul . He has won the prestigious sprint classic Grand Prix de Paris six times alone .

The 1984 Olympic participation was denied him. At the Friendship Competitions , the counter-event of the Eastern Bloc countries boycotting the Olympics , Heßlich was the first to achieve a time of less than ten seconds with 9.98 s, but the record was not officially recognized. Even years later, he considered undercutting the 10-second limit as one of his most valuable achievements: "You can become anything, even Olympic champion more often, but there is only one person who is the first to stay below this mark." The 9.98 seconds corresponded a speed of just over 72 kilometers per hour. He won the GDR Grand Prix eleven times in the sprint. He was successful seven times at the Grand Prix of the Socialist Countries (a series of competitions with races in the GDR , the Czech Republic , Poland and the Soviet Union ).

After completing his career in 1988 (which he retired for health reasons), Heßlich became a personal member of the National Olympic Committee of the GDR in 1990 , and after reunification a member of the National Olympic Committee for Germany . After his resignation, after the political change in Cottbus, he again competed in a farewell bike race.

Trivia

His personal record for a standing attempt is 11 minutes and 30 seconds during a race against his club mate and later national coach Detlef Uibel .

Personal and professional

Lutz Heßlich has completed a degree in physical education and after completing his career would have had the opportunity to work as a trainer in Cottbus . In times of upheaval in the GDR, this seemed too uncertain to him and he opened first one and later another bicycle shop in Cottbus in 1990.

He lives in Cottbus with his wife and two children. His son Nico (* 1990) was also successful as a track cyclist until 2018.

Heßlich is a great-grandson of the pacemaker Walter Heßlich ; this led u. a. the Dutch world champion Piet Dickentman . He had a fatal accident in 1951 while training on the Andreasried cycling track in Erfurt . His older brother Willi was also active as a pacemaker.

successes

1976
  • World Champion Junior World Champion - Sprint
1977
1978
1979
1980
  • gold Olympic Champion - Sprint
  • Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR GDR champion - sprint
1981
1982
1983
1984
  • gold Friendship Competitions - Sprint
  • Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR GDR champion - sprint
1985
1986
1987
1988

Awards (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Lutz Heßlich  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c German sports echo . Sportverlag, Berlin February 6, 1978, p. 3 .
  2. ^ Double Olympic champion Lutz Heßlich turns 50 - popularity unbroken Märkische Onlinezeitung
  3. ↑ Young world . Berlin August 27, 1987, p. 8 .
  4. ↑ a b Olympic fighters talk about highlights and everyday things . Sportverlag, Berlin 1983, p. 68 .
  5. ↑ German sports echo . Sportverlag, Berlin September 3, 1984, p. 3 .
  6. ↑ Velo . No. 2/1995 . Switzerland, S. 12-13 .
  7. ↑ Volker Kluge : The great lexicon of GDR athletes. The 1000 most successful and popular athletes from the GDR, their successes and biographies. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-348-9 , p. 155.
  8. ↑ Young world . Berlin August 24, 1987, p. 8 .
  9. ↑ Lutz Heßlich bicycle center
  10. ↑ Stayers, stars and sensations: Since 1885 Andreasried Erfurt , brochure, p. 27
personal data
SURNAME Ugly, Lutz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German track cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th January 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Outskirts