Stephan Freilang

Stephan Freilang (born September 27, 1967 in Hohenleipisch ) is a former German long-distance runner who came third in the marathon at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona .

In 1986 he finished fourth at the Junior World Championships in the 10,000-meter run and in the 20-kilometer road run , ran his first marathon in 1987 and finished eighth in the Fukuoka Marathon in 2:12:28 h a year later .

In 1989, his sports career was jeopardized by a serious motorcycle accident, but in 1990 he climbed back to the top of Germany with a victory in the Berlin Half Marathon and fourth place in the Berlin Marathon in his personal best of 2:09:45 h.

At the 1992 Olympic Games, he planned to start in the 10,000-meter run, but missed the German qualification standard. With his victory at the end of 1991 at the Palermo Marathon in 2:12:00 h, he nevertheless made it into the Olympic team.

There was a dramatic final at the Olympic marathon. He reached the stadium in third place, was overtaken by the Japanese Takeyuki Nakayama , but was able to pass him again and therefore won the bronze medal.

For this achievement he was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf on June 23, 1993.

In 1994 he won the Frankfurt Marathon , 1997 the Cologne Marathon and 1998 the Hanover Marathon . With his second victory in Frankfurt in the same year, he became German champion in the marathon.

This was followed by a second victory in the Hanover Marathon in 1999, a victory in the Leipzig Marathon in 2000 and a victory in the Lisbon Marathon in 2001 .

At the beginning of 2005 he retired from competitive sports. His best time in the half marathon (1:01:14 h, established in 1992 as the winner of the Berlin half marathon) is still the third fastest of a German athlete. With his best marathon time, he is the fifth fastest German of all time (as of October 2017).

Stephan Freilang first started for the LC Cottbus and trained with Dietmar "Pit" Bittermann , since 2002 for the SC DHfK Leipzig with Karl-Heinz Baumbach and Thomas Prochnow . When he competed, he was 1.76 m tall and weighed 65 kg.

Web links

• Stephan Freilang in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Sebastian Arlt: A television reminds us of faster times ( Memento from July 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Berliner Morgenpost , March 31, 2005
• Athlete portrait on bergfieber.de ( Memento from June 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Landessportbund Niedersachsen e. V., VIBSS: The Federal President and his tasks in the field of sport: ... on June 23, 1993, Federal President von Weizsäcker awarded ... disabled and non-disabled athletes, namely the medal winners of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 1992, with silver Bay leaf from ...