Wolfgang Behrendt (boxer)

Wolfgang Behrendt (1956)

Wolfgang Behrendt (born June 14, 1936 in Berlin ) is a former German boxer who won the bantamweight gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne , becoming the first Olympic champion in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). He started in the all-German team . In the Olympic final on December 1, 1956, he defeated the South Korean Soon Chung Song . The victory also earned him second place in the election for GDR athlete of the year 1956 (behind cyclist Täve Schur ).

Career

Wolfgang Behrendt started boxing in 1947. After his success in 1956, he tried to take part in the Olympics again, but in qualifying for the 1960 Summer Olympics in the featherweight division, Werner Kirsch from Cottbus at the Berlin Sportpalast outdid him. He then resigned from active sport, but returned to boxing in the run-up to the 1964 Summer Olympics in order to prepare again for participation in the Olympics. In the inner-German qualifying matches for the joint Olympic team, however, this time starting in the lightweight division, he was eliminated and finally ended his career as an athlete.

His other sporting successes included a third place at the European championships in 1955 and winning the GDR championships in 1955, 1957 and 1960. He played a total of 201 amateur fights, of which he won 188, finished five in a draw and lost eight. including three defeats in the adult (senior) age group.

Behrendt was a member of the presidium of the boxing association of the GDR for several years.

From 1963 to 1991 Wolfgang Behrendt was a sports photographer for the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland . During this time he reported on eight Olympic Games and received, among other things, two gold medals at world exhibitions of sports photography in Damascus and Beijing in the "Black and White" category. For his work as a sports photographer he received several state awards in the GDR; in 1968 he was honored with the Patriotic Order of Merit and in 1980 with the Order of the Labor Banner . He also completed training as a camera assistant with a filming permit.

Wolfgang Behrendt is married and has two children, his son Mario was also a bantamweight boxer and took part in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. He is a volunteer ambassador for the Children's Hospice Foundation for Central Germany Nordhausen e. V. in Tambach-Dietharz.