Jürgen May (born 18 June 1942 in

Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to: * Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany ** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district **Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city * Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen) * Narost ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

) is a former middle-distance runner, who was a successful athlete and

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

competitor, who escaped from the

GDR East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

to continue his career in the

FRG FRG may refer to: * Family Readiness Group in the United States Army * Federal Republic of Germany ** West Germany * FMN reductase (NAD(P)H) * Friendship Radiosport Games * Functional renormalization group * Guatemalan Republican Front (Spanish: '), ...

Successes in the GDR

*1964: Qualified as a GDR representative for the all-German team at the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, making the semi-final. *1965: May broke four records in only a few weeks: :European record in the 1500 m: 3:36.4 min. on 14 July in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

:World record in the 1000 m: 2:16.2 min. on 20 July in Erfurt :GDR record in the 800 m: 1:46.3 min. on 25 August in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

:GDR record in the one mile run: 3:56.0 min. on 30 August in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

*1965: May was nominated as GDR sportsman of the year (GDR statistics show that he came runner-up to

Peter Ducke Peter Ducke (born 14 October 1941) is a Sudeten German and a former East German football player. He was born in Bensen, Sudetenland, Germany during World War II. His older brother Roland was also a successful footballer. Ducke played most of h ...

)

Lifelong ban in the GDR

During the

1966 European Athletics Championships The 8th European Athletics Championships were held from 30 August to 4 September 1966 in the Stadium Puskás Ferenc, Nép Stadium in Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, Hungary. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Hera ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, May, on behalf of a footwear company, bribed teammate

Jürgen Haase Jürgen Haase (born 19 January 1945) is a former track and field athlete and Olympian, who, competing for East Germany, was among the world's best long distance track runners in the 1960s and 1970s. Twice during this period, in 1966 and 1969, ...

to wear the company's trainers in the

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

final. A rival firm in West Germany found out about the incident and made the details public. As punishment, May was given a lifelong ban from participating on behalf of the GDR. He also lost his job as an unpaid employee at the

newspaper '' Das Volk'', and therefore had to work from then on as a sports teacher.

New start in the FRG

In 1967 May took advantage of an offer to move to West Germany, where he was able to continue his career as a sportsman. He was selected by the German Athletics Federation for the 1969 European Championships. However, the team boycotted the European Championships and participated only symbolically in the relay competitions. May did not succeed in obtaining a foothold in international competitions again. In 1970 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

he pulled out of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

final at short notice due to a tooth operation. He pulled out of the 1971 European Championships in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

in advance. His last international competition was the 1972 Olympic Games in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

where he failed to qualify for the final in the 5000 metres. Afterwards he retired from competitive sport. He later worked as a civil servant in

Main-Kinzig-Kreis Main-Kinzig-Kreis is a Kreis (district) in the east of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Wetteraukreis, Vogelsbergkreis, Fulda, Bad Kissingen, Main-Spessart, Aschaffenburg, Offenbach and the district-free cities of Offenbach and Frankfu ...

. May is 1.74 m tall and had a match weight of 68 kg.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Jurgen 1942 births Living people East German male middle-distance runners East German male long-distance runners German male middle-distance runners German male long-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for the United Team of Germany Olympic athletes for West Germany People from Nordhausen, Thuringia Athletes from Thuringia West German Athletics Championships winners East German Athletics Championships winners