Olaf Forster

from left to right: Olaf Förster, Thomas Bänsch, Thomas Greiner and Hans Sennewald 1985

Olaf Förster (born November 2, 1962 in Karl-Marx-Stadt ) is a former rower from the GDR . In 1988 Förster became Olympic champion in the four-man category .

Förster started with swimming and won medals at the Spartakiad in 1977 and 1979 . Only then did he switch to the rowers at SC Einheit Dresden , where he trained under Dieter Grahn . In 1983 he finished second in the GDR championship with eighth . In 1985 he won his first world championship medal when he and Thomas Bänsch , Thomas Greiner and Hans Sennewald received bronze in the four without a helmsman. In 1986 he also rowed himself the bronze medal; this time he sat together with Thomas Greiner and Udo Kühn in a double with helmsman . In 1987 Greiner and Förster switched back to the four without and together with Ralf Brudel and Jens Luedecke they won gold at the World Championships in Copenhagen. At the 1988 Olympic Games, Förster, Brudel, Greiner and Roland Schröder won in front of the boats from the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. At the 1989 World Cup, Jens Luedecke was again in the boat instead of Roland Schröder; Förster, Brudel and Greiner won the season highlight for the third time in a row. In 1990 the four rowers rowed each other the bronze medal at the last world championship appearance of the GDR national rowing team.

Förster married Kerstin Pieloth in September 1987 , who received gold in the quad sculls at the 1988 Olympic Games; the two have two children. After his career, Olaf Förster worked for an insurance company. In 1988 he received the Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold for his Olympic victory in Seoul .

literature

• 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 , page 98.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , 12./13. November 1988, p. 4

Web links

• German successes at world championships
• Olaf Förster in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )