Schmeling, Karsten

Karsten Schmeling was born on January 13, 1962 in the city of Hennigsdorf , East Germany . He trained in Potsdam at the local sports club Dynamo under the guidance of coach Bernd Landfoigt .

He first made his name in rowing in 1979, winning a bronze medal in oar steeringless fours at the World Junior Championships in Moscow. The next season, at the junior world championship in Hasevinkel, he won in the steering wheelless deuces.

He achieved his first serious success at the adult international level in the 1981 season, when he joined the East German national team and played at the World Championships in Munich , where he became the silver medalist in steering doubles, losing in the final to the Italian national team.

In 1982, he went to the world championship in Lucerne , from where he brought another silver dignity award won in doubles - here only his crew from Italy again passed his team.

At the 1983 World Cup in Duisburg, he won the silver medal in eight, skipping ahead of athletes from New Zealand.

He was considered as a candidate for participation in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles , but East Germany, along with several other countries of the socialist camp, boycotted these competitions for political reasons. Instead, he performed at the alternative regatta Druzhba-84 in Moscow, where he won a bronze medal in the doubles program - lost to the teams from the USSR and Czechoslovakia at the finish line.

In 1985, he performed at the World Championships in Hazewinkel , where he took bronze in the fours.

At the 1986 World Championships in Nottingham, he beat all rivals in the classification of the steering fours and received gold. A year later, at similar competitions in Copenhagen, he repeated this achievement in the same discipline, thus becoming a two-time world champion in rowing, and in addition to this he won the silver medal in eights - he crossed the finish line behind the US team.

Thanks to a series of successful performances, he was awarded the right to defend the honor of the country at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul - as part of the crew, which also included rowers Frank Klavonn , Bernd Nizekke , Bernd Eichwurzel and helmsman Hendrik Reicher , took first place in the men's swing quadruple program with steering and most won the Olympic gold medal.

The last time showed any significant results in the international arena in the 1989 season, when he finished fourth in the oar steering fours at the World Championships in Bled .

For outstanding athletic achievements, he was twice awarded the Order " For Merit to the Fatherland " in gold (1986, 1988) ^{[1] [2]} .

In addition to playing sports, he served in the People’s Police ; after the unification of Germany, he worked as a car mechanic.

• Karsten Schmeling - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Karsten Schmeling - profile on the FISA website
• Karsten Schmeling (English) - page on the website of the International Olympic Committee