Ruth Schleiermacher (later Ruth Budzisch-Schleiermacher, born 3 November 1949) is a former

East German 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 ...

speedskater. She took part in eight international championships. Twice at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

(1971 and 1972), thrice at the World Allround Championships (1967, 1968 and 1969), once at the World Sprint Championships (1971) and two times at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

Career

Schleiermacher was born in

Wunsiedel (; Northern Bavarian: ''Wåuṉsieḏl'' or ''Wousigl'') is the seat of the Upper Franconian district of in northeast Bavaria, Germany. The town is the birthplace of poet Jean Paul. It also became known for its annual Festival and the Rudolf ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. At her international debut during the Wch Allround of 1967 in

Deventer Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, bu ...

she finished 27th. A year later, during the op het Wch Allround of 1968, she had improved to become 16th. Progress was such that the next year this had become the 4th place overall, while she won a silver distance medal on the 500m. After a year of absence at the big tournaments (though she did become East-German Champion that yearZickow 1991, pp. 126–127.), she returned next year, better than ever before. At the World Sprint Championships of 1971 in

Inzell Inzell is a municipality in the district of Traunstein in Bavaria, Germany. It is known for the Eisstadion Inzell, an outdoor artificial ice rink that has been used for many international speed skating championships. It is now an indoor oval. Ge ...

Schleiermacher wins her first and only international title, becoming the successor of

Lyudmila Titova Lyudmila Yevgenyevna Titova (russian: Людмила Евгеньевна Титова) (born 26 March 1946) is a retired Russian speed skater. Short biography After winning three national titles in 1966, she made her international debut at the ...

from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

World records

Over the course of her career, Schleiermacher skated one official

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

: Note that her best score on the sprint combination was skated before there was an official world record for that event. It was a world best performance at that time though.

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the column ''WR'' lists the official world records on the dates that Schleiermacher skated her personal records.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Budzisch, Margot with Klaus Huhn, Lothar Skorning and Günther Wonneberger. ''Chronik des DDR-Sports'' (in German). Berlin, Germany: Spotless-Verlag, 2000. * Eng, Trond and Marnix Koolhaas. ''National All Time & Encyclopedia Men/Ladies as at 1.7.1985, Issue No. 3: "German Democratic Republic"'' (bilingual Norwegian/English). Degernes, Norway: WSSSA-Skøytenytt, 1985. * Huhn, Klaus. ''Die DDR bei Olympia, 1956-1988'' (in German). Berlin, Germany: Spotless-Verlag, 2001. . * Kluge, Volker. ''Das große Lexikon der DDR-Sportler: Die 1000 erfolgreichsten und populärsten Sportlerinnen und Sportler aus der DDR, ihre Erfolge und Biographien'' (in German). Berlin, Germany: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2004. . * Zickow, Alfred. ''100 Jahre Deutsche Eisschnellauf Meisterschaften, 1891-1991. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Eisschnellaufes'' (in German). Berlin, Germany: DESG, 1991.

External links

Ruth Schleiermacher at SpeedSkatingStats.com

Statistiek bij ''Speedskatingnews''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schleiermacher, Ruth 1949 births German female speed skaters Speed skaters at the 1968 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics Olympic speed skaters for East Germany World record setters in speed skating Living people Sportspeople from Upper Franconia People from Wunsiedel