Fisher, Birgit

Birgit Fischer Birgit Fischer (born February 25, 1962 , Brandenburg-on-Havel , GDR ) - an outstanding German athlete ( canoeing ), eight-time Olympic champion, 28-time world champion, one of the most titled female athletes in sports history.

Birgit Fisher
personal information
Floor
A country
Specialization	paddling
Date of Birth
Place of Birth
Awards and medals Olympic Games Gold Moscow 1980 Single 500 m Gold Seoul 1988 Deuce 500 m Gold Seoul 1988 Four 500 m Silver Seoul 1988 Single 500 m Gold Barcelona 1992 Single 500 m Silver Barcelona 1992 Four 500 m Gold Atlanta 1996 Four 500 m Silver Atlanta 1996 Deuce 500 m Gold Sydney 2000 Deuce 500 m Gold Sydney 2000 Four 500 m Gold Athens 2004 Four 500 m Silver Athens 2004 Deuce 500 m State awards

Birgit Fischer (left) and Freya Hoffmeister in 2010

In 1984-1993, Birgit was married to a German canoeist, the silver medalist of the 1988 Olympic Games, Jörg Schmidt, and performed under the name Schmidt.

Having won her first Olympic gold medal in 1980 in Moscow in the men's single 500m race, Birgit then took away the gold medals from all 6 Olympic Games in which she participated (in 1984 due to the boycott of the Los Angeles GDR team in Los Angeles perform at the Olympics, although she was in great shape - in 1982 and 1983 she won 6 gold medals at the world championships).

After the games in Seoul-1988 and Sydney-2000, Birgit announced her retirement from the sport, but always came back in triumph.

• Winner of the largest number of Olympic gold medals among all German athletes, both women and men
• Divides with Hungarian Aladar Gurevich and German Hans Günther Winkler a record in the number of Olympics, which won awards (6). At the same time, Fisher is the only one in history who won at least 2 medals at 5 Olympiads.
• The only woman in history who won Olympic medals for 24 years
• The only athlete (both among women and among men) who won 12 Olympic medals in rowing
• The youngest (18 years old in 1980 ) and the oldest (42 years old in 2004 ) Olympic champion in rowing and canoeing
• The standard-bearer of the German national team at the Olympic Games 2000 in Sydney
• 35 times World Championships medalist
• 7-time European Championships medalist
• Athlete of the Year in Germany in 2004

In February 2008, Birgit announced that she would not participate in the 2008 Games in Beijing (seventh for himself), since she does not have time to prepare for them ^[6] .

Birgit is the half-sister of the German swimmer Zarina Hülsenbeck ( German Sarina Hülsenbeck , born 1962), the 1980 Olympic champion in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay . Zarina's daughter and niece Birgit - German kayaker Fanny Fischer (born 1986), 2008 Olympic champion in four , the discipline in which Birgit Fisher won 4 Olympic gold (1988, 1996, 2000 and 2004).