Olympic Winter Games 1968 / Participant (GDR)
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The GDR first took part in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, with its own delegation to the Winter Olympics.
The GDR team consisted of 57 athletes, 45 men and 12 women. It started for the last time, like the team from Germany, under the black, red and gold flag with white Olympic rings in the middle.
Flag bearer
Luge rider Thomas Köhler carried the flag of the GDR during the opening ceremony in the Stade olympique .
Medals
With a recovered gold, two silver and two bronze medals, the team of the GDR took 10th place in the medal table .
gold
- Klaus-Michael Bonsack and Thomas Köhler : tobogganing, men, two-seaters
silver
- Gabriele Seyfert : figure skating, women, singles
- Thomas Köhler: Tobogganing, men, single-seaters
bronze
- Klaus-Michael Bonsack : tobogganing, men, single-seaters
- Andreas Kunz : Nordic skiing, Nordic combined
Participants by sport
biathlon
The biathletes had nothing to do with the outcome in the individual. In the new relay competition they fought for a respectable 6th place.
Men's:
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Hansjörg Knauthe (SG Dynamo Zinnwald)
- Individual (20 km): 21st place
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Dieter Speer (SG Dynamo Zinnwald)
- Individual (20 km): 18th place
- Relay (4 × 7.5 km): 6th place
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Heinz Kluge (SG Dynamo Zinnwald)
- Individual (20 km): 24th place
- Relay (4 × 7.5 km): 6th place
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Horst Koschka (SG Dynamo Zinnwald)
- Individual (20 km): 10th place
- Relay (4 × 7.5 km): 6th place
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Hans-Gert Jahn (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof)
- Relay (4 × 7.5 km): 6th place
ice Hockey
In the only Olympic participation of a GDR team, the athletes from the performance centers Berlin, Weißwasser, Crimmitschau and Rostock reached the final round straight away. There, however, they suffered high defeats, especially against the great powers of ice hockey, and finished last without a point. The domestic German duel could be made bearable with 2: 4. In the overall ranking of the Olympic tournament this meant 8th place.
Men
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figure skating
Gabi Seifert was able to win a silver medal and thus established the legendary reputation of the protégés around Jutta Müller . Jan Hoffmann, the youngest male Olympic participant of all time at the age of twelve , had his premiere in the men's category.
Women:
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Men
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Couples:
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Speed skating
With only one starter, speed skating was the weakest part of the GDR team alongside alpine skiing. Ruth Budzisch-Schleiermacher achieved a respectable 8th place over 1500 m.
Women:
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Ruth Schleiermacher (SC Dynamo Berlin)
- 500 m: 16th place
- 1000 m: 12th place
- 1500 m: 8th place
Sledding
From the perspective of the GDR team management, the women's luge competition was overshadowed by a scandal, as a result of which they briefly threatened to leave immediately. The GDR tobogganists Ortrun Enderlein, Anna-Maria Müller and Angela Knösel were in 1st, 2nd and 4th place after three runs. Shortly before the start of the third run, the Polish jury chairman Lucjan Świderski carried out a spot check by putting some snow on the Side face of the ice edge of the sled put. As it melted, Świderski concluded that the runners of their sledges had heated up. According to the regulations of the international association FIL, this has been forbidden since 1964 , since heating can save around half a second in time. Enderlein, Müller and Knösel were then disqualified by the jury.
The men, however, were able to win a complete set of medals in both decisions.
Women:
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Men's:
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Two-seater
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Alpine skiing
Eberhard Riedel, who was the only alpine athlete ever to compete for the GDR, took a respectable 13th place in the slalom competition.
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Eberhard Riedel (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal)
- Departure; eliminated
- Giant slalom :; 41st place
- Slalom; 13th place
Nordic skiing
Cross-country skiing
The cross-country skiers who competed independently for the first time were able to achieve good placings, especially in the relay decisions.
Women:
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Men's:
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Ski jumping
In a close competition on the normal hill, Dieter Neuendorf was only 1.3 points short of bronze in the end, despite his 7th place. On the large hill, Manfred Queck was able to improve to fourth after a 13th place in the first round.
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Dieter Neuendorf (ASK Forward Brotterode)
- Normal hill; 7th place
- Large hill; 15th place
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Manfred Queck (SC Dynamo Klingenthal)
- Normal hill; 14th place
- Large hill; 4th Place
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Wolfgang Stöhr (SC Dynamo Klingenthal)
- Normal hill; 20th place
- Large hill; 7th place
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Bernd Karwofsky (SC Dynamo Klingenthal)
- Normal hill; 54th place
Nordic combination
All three GDR starters were better runners than jumpers. Andreas Kunz achieved bronze after finishing tenth in jumping. Roland Weißpflog improved almost sensationally from 29th place to 9th place, Karl-Heinz Luck achieved 11th place after 20th place in jumping. The planned fourth starter Ralph Pöhland , with hope for a medal, fled to Germany shortly before the start of the games.
- Andreas Kunz (SC Dynamo Klingenthal)
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Roland Weißpflog (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal)
- Individual (normal hill 70 m / 15 km): 9th place
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Karl-Heinz Luck (SC Motor Zella-Mehlis)
- Individual (normal hill 70 m / 15 km): 11th place
statistics
Medals by sports
Medal table (based on the decisions) | |||||
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space | team | gold | silver | bronze | total |
1 | Luge | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
2 | figure skating | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
3 | Nordic combination | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Medals according to sports clubs
Medal table (based on the individual athletes) | |||||
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space | team | gold | silver | bronze | total |
1 | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4th |
2 | SC Karl-Marx-Stadt | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
3 | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Participants by sports clubs
team | Men | Women | total |
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SC Dynamo Berlin | 10 | 3 | 13 |
SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 5 | 5 | 10 |
SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 8th | 1 | 9 |
SG Dynamo Weißwasser | 7th | 0 | 7th |
ASK Oberhof | 5 | 0 | 5 |
SC Karl-Marx-Stadt | 2 | 2 | 4th |
SG Dynamo Zinnwald | 4th | 0 | 4th |
ASK Forward Crimmitschau | 2 | 0 | 2 |
SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 1 | 1 | 2 |
ASK forward Brotterode | 1 | 0 | 1 |
SC Empor Rostock | 1 | 0 | 1 |
total | 46 | 12 | 58 |
Web links
- Olympic team of the GDR 1968 in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolf-Sören Treusch: Olympic Winter Games 1968 in Grenoble: "Allemagne" against "East Germany" , Deutschlandfunk Kultur , February 11, 2018.