Meinhard Taken

Meinhard Nehmer (born January 13, 1941 in Boblin , Ueckermünde district , Pomerania ) is a former German athlete , bobsleigh athlete (bobsleigh pilot) and Olympic champion , who achieved his successes in the GDR team. After his sports career, he worked successfully as a bobsleigh coach for the USA , Italy and Germany since 1991 .

He lives with his wife Renate, with whom he has 3 children (2 daughters, 1 son), in the Varnkevitz district of the Putgarten community in the far north of the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

education and profession

Meinhard Nehmer is the son of a farmer who after 1945 found a new existence with his family as a new farmer in Varnkevitz (today the district of Vorpommern-Rügen ) after being expelled from his hometown near Stettin, which fell to Poland . After graduating from 8th grade, Nehmer worked as a farmer in his father's business from 1955. From 1961 to 1963 he worked in the weather station at Cape Arkona and was trained as a weather service technician.

During his athletic career, he graduated from the 10th grade from 1965 to 1967. From 1976 to 1978 and 1980 to 1982 he studied at the engineering school for agricultural technology in Nordhausen and graduated with the title of engineer for agricultural machine technology . After the end of competitive sport, Meinhard Nehmer was transferred from ASK Vorwärts Oberhof to the Volksmarine in Dranske on Rügen in 1982 and was able to move back to his parents' house. As an officer for training and maintenance in the 6th Flotilla , he worked in his engineering profession and made it to the position of frigate captain .

In 1985 the head of the Army Sports Association Forward ordered him back to Oberhof , and Nehmer's second bobsleigh career began. The international competition had become tougher because, for example, Opel had developed a new bobsleigh for the team from the Federal Republic of Germany . Since the victory was decided in advance at construction tables and in bobsleigh workshops, Nehmer was in demand as a consultant and tester for chassis, sled and runners. From then until the turn, Nehmer was again present at all important races.

His hope of being able to continue until his 50th birthday was not fulfilled. He was released a few days after joining the German Armed Forces , three months before the transition pension. While unemployed, he tried to make a living by renting rooms in his house in Varnkevitz. It was not until the end of 1991 that he received an offer to become a national bobsleigh coach in the USA and thus begin his third bobsleigh career. During the contract period until 1993 he brought the USA four-man bobsleigh with bobsleigh pilot Brian Shimer to a medal position at the 1993 World Championships (bronze) and to win the World Cup. From 1993 to 2000 Meinhard Nehmer was coach of the Italian national bobsleigh team in repeatedly renewed short contracts . Here, too, he was involved in 8 international medals with bobsleigh pilot Günther Huber .

From 2000 Meinhard Nehmer was responsible for the German national bobsleigh team as the men's discipline trainer at the Bobsleigh and Sled Association for Germany . After the 2006 Winter Olympics , he ended his coaching career.

Athletic career

Meinhard Nehmer started with the sport with the spear on the meadow in front of his parents' homestead in Varnkewitz. He was multiple district champion and also collected laurel with discus and ball. In 1963 he switched to the ASK Vorwärts Potsdam as a track and field athlete and was an NVA member as an athlete . His achievements culminated in 1971 in the best performance of 81.50 m in the javelin throw and the bronze medal at the GDR championships. In the same year he was operated on on the shoulder and had to stop athletics. Since then he has had problems with his shoulder and always in pain.

In 1971, by chance, Nehmer came to the ASK Vorwärts Potsdam for a test for bobsleigh . As a result, he switched to ASK Vorwärts Oberhof in 1973, while the family moved from Potsdam in 1974. The racing sled art ice rink , newly built in Oberhof in 1971 , was used to professionally develop GDR bobsleigh again after decades so that medals could be achieved. Meinhard Nehmer won his first bobsleigh medal in 1975 at the GDR championship in the two-man bobsleigh. (Four-man bobsleigh races cannot be held in Oberhof due to the construction of the track.)

At the opening of the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck , he was the flag bearer of the GDR team. A few days later he won the gold medal in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh, surprising for the competition and the public. In the following years he dominated his sports discipline and won 4 medals at 2 Olympic Games, 4 medals at 3 World Championships and 3 medals at 2 European Championships. In his view, the most valuable medal was gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid . At that time, Nehmer won the four with a lead of almost a second - where it is usually a hundredths - ahead of the Swiss bobsleigh legend Erich Schärer . Although the GDR sports management asked him to continue, Nehmer ended his active sports career in 1980 at the age of 39.

He played his bobsleigh career exclusively as a bobsleigh pilot, for which he had special skills. In contrast to many of his competitors, he never fell over with the bob during his playing days.

Social Commitment

• Honorary President of the Bobsleigh and Sleigh Sports Association Brandenburg eV
• Independent district member of the FDP in the Rügen district since 1999

Sporting successes

As an athlete

GDR athletics championships 1971

• Bronze in the javelin throw (ASK Vorwärts Potsdam)

GDR championship 1975

• Gold in the two-man bobsleigh (with Bernhard Germeshausen ) (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof)

Olympic Winter Games 1976 in Innsbruck (also counted as World Championship)

• Gold in the two-man bobsleigh (with Bernhard Germeshausen)
• Gold in the four-man bobsleigh (with Jochen Babock , Bernhard Germeshausen and Bernhard Lehmann )

World Championships 1977 in St. Moritz

• Gold in the four-man bobsleigh (with Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt , Bernhard Germeshausen and Raimund Bethge )

World Championships 1978 in Lake Placid

• Silver in the two-man bobsleigh (with Raimund Bethge)
• Bronze in the four-man bobsleigh (with Raimund Bethge, Bernhard Germeshausen and Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt)

European Championships 1978 in Igls

• Silver in the four-man bobsleigh (with Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt, Bernhard Germeshausen and Raimund Bethge)

World Championships 1979 in Königssee

• Silver in the four-man bobsleigh (with Detlef Richter , Bernhard Germeshausen and Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt)

European Championships 1979 in Winterberg

• Bronze in the two-man bobsleigh (with Bogdan Musiol )
• Gold in the four-man bobsleigh (with Jochen Babock, Bernhard Germeshausen and Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt)

1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid (also counted as World Championship)

• Bronze in the two-man bobsleigh (with Bogdan Musiol)
• Gold in the four-man bobsleigh (with Bogdan Musiol, Bernhard Germeshausen and Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt)

As a trainer

World Championships 1993 in Igls

• Bronze in the four-man bobsleigh for USA ( Brian Shimer , Bryan Leturgez , Karlos Kirby and Randy Jones )

Overall World Cup winner 1993 four-man bobsleigh

Brian Shimer (USA)

1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer

• Bronze in the two-man bobsleigh for Italy ( Günther Huber and Stefano Ticci )

European Championships 1994 in La Plagne , France

• Silver in the two-man bobsleigh for Italy (Günther Huber and Stefano Ticci)
• Gold in the four-man bobsleigh for Italy (Günther Huber, Antonio Tartaglia , Stefano Ticci and Mirko Ruggiero )

World Championships 1997 in St. Moritz

• Silver in the two-man bobsleigh for Italy (Günther Huber and Antonio Tartaglia)

European Championships 1997 in Königssee

• Gold in the two-man bobsleigh for Italy (Günther Huber and Antonio Tartaglia)

1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano

• Gold in the two-man bobsleigh for Italy (Günther Huber and Antonio Tartaglia)

European Championships 1998 in Igls

• Bronze in the two-man bobsleigh for Italy (Günther Huber and Antonio Tartaglia)

World Championships 1999 in Cortina d'Ampezzo

• Gold in the two-man bobsleigh for Italy (Günther Huber, Enrico Costa and Ubaldo Ranzi - Costa injured himself in the 1st run)

European Championships 2000 in Cortina d'Ampezzo

• Silver in the two-man bobsleigh for Italy (Günther Huber and Ubaldo Ranzi)

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit (Silver and Gold)
• 3 × Honored Master of Sports
• Fighting forces of the NVA
• Induction into the Hall of Fame of German Sports

literature

• Short biography for:  Nehmer, Meinhard . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• Meinhard Nehmer in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ message 24 05 2016. In: www.hall-of-fame-sport.de. Retrieved July 17, 2016 .