Marita Koch

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Marita Koch athletics

Federal Archives Image 183-1984-0402-025, Marita Koch.jpg
Koch at the GDR championships in 1984

nation Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR German Democratic Republic
birthday February 18, 1957
place of birth Wismar
size 171 cm
Weight 61 kg
Career
discipline sprint
Best performance 10.83 s ( 100 m )
21.71 s ( 200 m )
47.60 s ( 400 m )
society SC Empor Rostock
status resigned
End of career 1986
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
World championships 3 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
European championships 6 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
Indoor world championships 1 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
Olympic rings Olympic games
gold Moscow 1980 400 m
silver Moscow 1980 4 × 400 m
IAAF logo World championships
gold Helsinki 1983 200 m
gold Helsinki 1983 4 × 100 m
gold Helsinki 1983 4 × 400 m
silver Helsinki 1983 100 m
EAA logo European championships
gold Prague 1978 400 m
gold Prague 1978 4 × 400 m
gold Athens 1982 400 m
gold Athens 1982 4 × 400 m
gold Stuttgart 1986 400 m
gold Stuttgart 1986 4 × 400 m
IAAF logo Indoor world championships
gold Paris 1985 200 m
last change: September 2, 2013
Marita Koch beats Marlies Göhr in a 200-meter run (1984)

Marita Koch (now Marita Meier-Koch) (born February 18, 1957 in Wismar ) is a former athlete ( GDR ). She won the gold medal over 400 meters at the 1980 Olympic Games and still holds the world record over 400 meters.

Life

After Marita Koch was unable to participate in the 1976 Olympic Games due to an injury (muscle tear), the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow became her only games. With the victory over 400 meters and together with the GDR relay over 4 x 400 meters, she won two medals. She won the 400 meters in 48.88 s. In the season she won silver as the final runner together with Gabriele Löwe , Barbara Krug and Christina Lathan .

At the 1984 Olympics she was unable to attend because of the boycott of the socialist states. For the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul , however, it was firmly planned again. But shortly before that, she retired from active sports. She stated that her tendons were hurting too much and that she did not believe in "being able to do it again."

With the world championships in 1983 , Marita Koch only experienced one world championship appearance . With three gold medals and one silver medal, she was also the most successful athlete. In the title fights in Helsinki she won over 200 meters (22.13 s), 4 times 100 and 4 times 400 meters. She took silver over 100 meters . Her compatriot Marlies Göhr reached the destination five hundredths of a second before her.

However, Marita Koch collected most of the medals at European championships . In total, she was European champion six times. From 1978 to 1986 she won the gold medal over 400 meters three times in a row. With the GDR relay, Marita Koch also won the gold medal there. At the European Championships in 1982 she also set new world records both over 400 meters (48.16 s) and with the relay (3: 19.04 min). She was able to beat both records again.

Marita Koch managed to become GDR champion 19 times between 1975 and 1986, winning ten titles indoors and nine outdoors. She won her last title at the indoor championships in 1986.

With a height of 1.71 m, Koch had a competition weight of 61 kg. Her trainer at SC Empor Rostock was Wolfgang Meier, with whom she has also been married since 1987 and has a daughter (* 1989). Koch studied medicine at the Wilhelm Pieck University . In 1989 she broke off her studies and opened a sporting goods store in Rostock, and from 2000 she also ran a fashion store.

In 2014 she was the first German athlete to be accepted into the IAAF Hall of Fame alongside Heike Drechsler .

World records

In total, Marita Koch was able to set 15 world records in Olympic disciplines. Only the Australian sprinter Betty Cuthbert set more world records.

She set seven world records on her parade route, the 400 meters. The 47.60 s of 1985, when she clearly defeated all the competition except for the Russian Olha Wladykina-Bryshina (48.27 s) at the World Cup in Canberra , have not been beaten to this day. Apart from Koch, only the Czech Jarmila Kratochvílová (47.99 s on August 10, 1983) managed a run under 48 seconds. However, Marita Koch set her first world record over the 200 meters, a month before her first world record over 400 meters. At the age of 21 (1978) she ran half the lap in Erfurt's Steigerwald Stadium in 22.06 seconds. A year later, it finally pushed the mark to 21.71 s, which was a European record until August 28, 2015, when Dafne Schippers undercut it at the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing . In 1984 she confirmed this time again.

Marita Koch set two further world records in non-Olympic disciplines, namely in the 4 x 200 meter relay and over the 50 meters in the hall.

Marita Koch at a sports festival in the Berlin Sports Forum, August 21, 1986
200 m
  • 22.06 s: May 28, 1978 in Erfurt ( Steigerwaldstadion )
  • 22.02 s: June 3, 1979 in Leipzig
  • 21.71 s (until 2015 ER): June 10, 1979 in Karl-Marx-Stadt
  • 21.71 s: July 21, 1984 in Potsdam
400 m
  • 49.19 s: July 2, 1978 in Leipzig
  • 49.03 s: August 19, 1978 in Potsdam
  • 48.94s: August 31, 1978 in Prague
  • 48.89 s: July 29, 1979 in Potsdam
  • 48.60 s: 4 August 1979 in Turin
  • 48.16 s: September 8, 1982 in Athens
  • 47.60 s (WR) : October 6, 1985 in Canberra
4 × 100 m relay
  • 42.10 s: June 10, 1979 in Karl-Marx-Stadt
  • 41.53 s: July 31, 1983 in Berlin
4 × 400 m relay
  • 3: 19.04 min: September 11, 1982 in Athens
  • 3: 15.92 min: June 3, 1984 in Erfurt
4 × 200 m relay
  • 1: 28.2 min: August 9, 1980 in Jena
50 m (hall)
  • 6.11s: February 2, 1980 in Grenoble

Explanation of symbols:
WR = existing world record; ER = existing European record

Doping allegations

In 1991, anti-doping opponents Brigitte Berendonk and Werner Franke were able to secure several dissertations and post-doctoral theses by former GDR doping researchers at the Bad Saarow Military Medical Academy . Based on the work, the state-organized doping practice of many well-known GDR competitive athletes, including Marita Koch, was reconstructed. According to the information, Marita Koch received high doses of Oral-Turinabol from 1981 to 1984 . Marita Koch denies having used doping substances.

Awards

literature

  • Short biography about:  Koch, Marita . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Klaus Amrhein: Biographical manual on the history of German athletics 1898–2005 . 2 volumes. Darmstadt 2005 published on German Athletics Promotion and Project Society.

Movies

  • Lone Fighter (2013): Documentary about four top athletes from the GDR, including Marita Koch. Film premiere at the Berlinale 2013

Web links

Commons : Marita Koch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MDR: Meier-Koch, Marita: Portrait ( Memento from November 5, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Klaus Amrhein: Biographical Handbook on the History of German Athletics 1898-2005 . 2 volumes. Darmstadt 2005
  3. ↑ a b c Andreas Schlebach: Marita Koch - Too fast to be true? ndr.de , February 18, 2017, accessed on May 25, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Michael Reinsch: Chained to a system forever. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 6, 2010, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Michael Reinsch: Hollow lone fighters. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 14, 2013, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Brigitte Berendonk: Doping documents - From research to fraud. Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-540-53742-2 , p. 120, table 5
  7. ↑ Jutta Heess: Back to the start. taz archive, March 22, 2006, p. 19 , accessed on May 25, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Cook, Marita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marita Meier-Koch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German athlete from the GDR and Olympic champion
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Wismar