Christel Lau (born 3 May 1944) is a retired German

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player. Lau grew up in

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. Initially a

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete, she did not start playing hockey until the age of 25. Lau played for

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German association football, football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding ...

. With her club, she won eight German championship titles. She also played 24 games in total for the German national team. With West Germany, Lau won the 1976

Women's Hockey World Cup The Women's FIH Hockey World Cup is the field hockey World Cup competition for women, whose format for qualification and the final tournament is similar to the men's. It has been held since 1974. The tournament has been organized by the Internat ...

. In 1974, Lau was awarded the

Silbernes Lorbeerblatt Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf), the highest sports award in Germany, was endowed on 23 June 1950 by the German President Theodor Heuss. It is awarded to athletes and teams of exemplary character that have won medals at Olympic and ...

. In 1988, she was inducted into the

hall of fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

of the Lower Saxon Institute of Sports History.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lau, Christel 1944 births Living people German female field hockey players People from Malbork Sportspeople from Hildesheim Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf People from West Prussia 20th-century German women