Kirsten Wenzel (later Strohbach, born 27 February 1961) is a rowing cox who represented East Germany.

Rowing career

Wenzel was born in 1961 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. She started for SC DHfK

and won gold at the 1975

Spartakiad The Spartakiad (or Spartakiade) was an international sports event that was sponsored by the Soviet Union. Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. Later Spartakiads were organized as national sport events of the Eastern Bloc ...

in the coxed quad scull. At the

1978 World Rowing Championships Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

on Lake Karapiro in New Zealand, she became world champion with the coxed four team. In the same boat class but with different rowers, she won silver at the

1979 World Rowing Championships The 1979 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 August – 9 September 1979 at Bled in Slovenia, Yugoslavia. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Medal table This table does not include th ...

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

, Yugoslavia. At the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Wenzel won gold with the

coxed four A coxed four, also known as a 4+, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars and is steered by a coxswain. The crew consists of four rowers, each having one oa ...

. At the

1981 World Rowing Championships The 1981 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 August to 6 September 1981 at Oberschleißheim outside Munich, West Germany. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Medal table References ...

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 ...

, she won silver with the coxed four. At the

1982 World Rowing Championships The 1982 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 28 to 29 August 1982 at Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Medal table References {{World Rowing Champio ...

on the Rotsee in Switzerland she coxed the women's eight to bronze. She competed at the

1983 World Rowing Championships The 1983 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 3 to 4 September 1983 at Wedau in Duisburg, West Germany. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Medals table Seventeen nations won medals of th ...

under her married name Strohbach and won a final bronze medal with the women's eight before she retired.

Private life

On 18 December 1982, Wenzel married Olympic swimmer Rainer Strohbach at the town hall of Pankow. She studied to become a teacher and taught at high schools in Berlin. She later divorced Strohbach.

References

1961 births Living people Sportspeople from Leipzig People from Bezirk Leipzig East German female rowers Coxswains (rowing) Olympic rowers for East Germany Rowers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic medalists in rowing World Rowing Championships medalists for East Germany Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver {{Germany-rowing-Olympic-medalist-stub