Rainer Henkel (born 27 February 1964 in

Opladen Opladen, now a district of Leverkusen, used to be the capital of the Rhein-Wupper-Kreis (Rhine-Wupper-District) until 1975. Opladen station is located northeast from Cologne on the railway to Wuppertal. It is also on the Autobahn A3. Population ...

) is a former freestyle swimmer from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, who won the bronze medal in the 4×200 m freestyle relay for

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

.Rainer Henkel at Sports Reference
at Sports Reference At the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Henkel won four medals: two golds in the 400 m freestyle and 1500 m freestyle in 1986, silver in the 4×200 m freestyle, and bronze in the 4×200 m freestyle. Furthermore, he won five medals at the European Championships: two golds in the 1500 m freestyle and 4×200 m freestyle in 1987, two silver medals in the 1500 m freestyle in 1985 and the 400 m freestyle in 1987, and one bronze in the 400 m freestyle in 1985. From 1989 to 2001 he was married to the former German high jumper

Heike Henkel Heike Henkel (; born Heike Redetzky on 5 May 1964) is a German former athlete competing in high jump. She was Olympic, World and European champion. She won the high jump gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Biograp ...

References

1964 births Living people Sportspeople from Leverkusen Swimmers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for West Germany Olympic swimmers of Germany World record setters in swimming Olympic bronze medalists in swimming German male freestyle swimmers World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics 20th-century German people 21st-century German people {{Germany-swimming-Olympic-medalist-stub