Stephanie Storp (born 28 November 1968 in
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
,
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 ...
) is a retired female
shot put
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...
ter 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 ...
. Her best performance was winning the bronze medal at the
1997 World Championships, with a throw of 19.22 metres. She also won the silver medal at the
1993 World Indoor Championships, and represented her country in the
Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
of
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
and
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
. She ended her athletics career in 1998, having taken up
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
as a new sport.
Athletics career
As a teenager she won the bronze medal at the 1985 European Junior Championships. Storp represented West Germany, and finished behind two East Germans
Bettina Libera and
Ilke Wyludda
Ilke Wyludda (born 28 March 1969) is a discus thrower from Germany.
She set eleven junior records at discus throw (and also two at shot put), and became junior world champion. Between 1989 and 1991 she recorded 41 successive wins until beaten ...
. The next year she won the silver medal at the first edition of the
World Junior Championships, again sharing the podium with two East Germans
Heike Rohrmann and
Ines Wittich
Ines Wittich (born 14 November 1969) is a retired German shot putter.
She represented the sports clubs TV Wattenscheid and TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, and won the bronze medal at the German championships in 1998.
Her personal best throw was 19.48 ...
. The same year she competed at the
1986 European Championships for seniors, finishing eleventh in the shot put and tenth in the
discus throw
The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...
. She would not compete on top level in discus throw after this.
One year later, still only nineteen years of age, she competed at her first
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, ...
, which was staged in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. She finished tenth with a throw of 19.36 metres. During the indoor season she had finished fifth at the
1987 European Indoor Championships, and in August, a month before the World Championships, she had thrown a personal best of 19.90 metres in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. At her first
World Indoor Championships in 1989 she finished fourth, with 19.63 metres. The same winter she competed at the
1989 European Indoor Championships, which she won with a throw of 20.30 metres. She finished ahead of East German
Heike Hartwig
Heike Hartwig (born 30 December 1962 in Bernburg, Bezirk Halle) is a retired East German shot putter.
She represented the sports club SC Dynamo Berlin, and became East German championships in 1987, 1989 and 1990.
Her personal best throw was 21 ...
and West German
Iris Plotzitzka
Iris Plotzitzka (born 7 January 1966 in Memmingen, Bavaria) is a retired West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on ...
. The result of 20.30 metres would remain her career best throw in an indoor event.
In 1990 she broke the 20-metre barrier on the outdoor field as well, throwing a new personal best of 20.34 metres on 1 July in
Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin.
Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's hea ...
, a result that would remain her career best throw. That season she finished sixth at the
1990 European Indoor Championships and seventh at the
1990 European Championships. With a seventh place she actually placed behind five other Germans; three from East Germany (
Kumbernuss,
Neimke, Hartwig) and two from West Germany (
Losch Losch or Lösch is a surname which may refer to:
* Abe Losch, a pseudonym of Harry J. Lincoln (1878-1937), American music composer
* August Lösch (1906–1945), German economist
* Claudia Losch (born 1960), retired shot putter who competed for Wes ...
, Plotzitzka). This would be her last competition under the
partition of Germany
Partition may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive
* Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job
Software
* Partition (database), the division of a ...
.
In 1991 she finished fourth at the
1991 World Indoor Championships and sixth at the
1991 World Championships. She had thrown 19.52 metres during the qualifying round; in the final she threw 19.50 metres. Her best throw this season was 19.80 metres; this was the third best throw in Europe that season, only behind two athletes from the Soviet Union who had 21.12 and 20.36 metres respectively.
[European Top Performers 1980-2005: Women (Outdoor)](_blank)
- GBR Athletics In 1992 Storp qualified for her first
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 ...
. She represented the unified Germany together with Kathrin Neimke. In the
Olympic competition, Neimke went on to win the bronze medal, while Storp finished seventh with a best throw of 19.10 metres. This was also her best throw for the season.
The next year she made a breakthrough at the senior level as she won her first major international medal. With a throw of 19.37 metres, she won the silver medal at the
1993 World Indoor Championships, only behind 1992 Olympic champion
Svetlana Krivelyova
Svetlana Vladimirovna Krivelyova (russian: Светлана Владимировна Кривелёва; born 13 June 1969) is a former track and field athlete who specialised in the shot put.
Krivelyova was born in Bryansk, Russia. Her career ...
. On 23 July in London she threw a season's best of 19.71 metres. She did not manage to repeat this form in the
1993 World Championships final a month later. Having reached the final with a 19.38 metre throw in the qualification round, she only finished eleventh with a mediocre 18.83 metres. The event was staged in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
in her home country, and once again countryfellow Kathrin Neimke won the bronze medal.
In 1994 it was time for another edition of 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, ...
. Storp managed a throw of 19.39 metres, which was enough to secure a fourth place. Both the bronze medalist and the silver medalist, who was her countryfellow Astrid Kumbernuss, threw 19.49 metres. Storp did not compete at the next major event, the
1995 World Indoor Championships. At the
1995 World Championships, she once again underperformed in the final round with a throw of 18.81 metres. This time, it was enough for an eighth place, tied with seventh but losing on countback (measuring the second best throw in the competition). Astrid Kumbernuss won the event, with Kathrin Neimke in fourth place.
Storp's season's best was only 18.95, achieved in July in London. 1996 was an Olympic year, and Storp was selected for her second Olympic Games. With 19.06 metres she finished sixth in the
Olympic shot put final, one place ahead of Kathrin Neimke while Kumbernuss again won the event.
In 1997 Storp managed to reach old lengths. Her season's best was 19.89 metres, which was the third best throw in Europe that year.
She also had success in the major competitions, albeit not with the same results: she finished fourth at the
1997 World Indoor Championships despite throwing only 18.80 metres, and at the
1997 World Championships she won the bronze medal, beating Chinese
Huang Zhihong
Huang Zhihong (); born May 7, 1965, in Lanxi, Jinhua, Zhejiang) is a former shot put athlete from China. An Olympic silver medallist and a double world champion, she was in fact the first Asian to win a world championship in athletics. Her p ...
to third place with a seven centimetre margin. Astrid Kumbernuss won,
Vita Pavlysh
Viktoriya Anatoliïvna Pavlysh ( uk, Вікторія Анатопіївна Павпиш; born 15 January 1969 in Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a former track and field athlete who specialized in the shot put.
Pavlysh was stripped o ...
took the silver medal.
1998 was Storp's swansong season as an athlete. She managed a 19.12 metres throw in May in
Vöhrum, and qualified for the
1998 European Championships, where she finished ninth with 18.16 metres. By then she had already taken up
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
, playing for SV Halchtern/Linden in the second highest German league. She attempted a comeback to athletics in 2000, but without success.
In domestic competitions, she represented the sports clubs LG Braunschweig and
VfL Wolfsburg
Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...
. She became German champion in 1994, won silver medals at the national championships in the years 1998-1993, 1997 and 1998 and bronze medals in 1986, 1987, 1995 and 1996. She became German indoor champion in 1991, 1993 and 1997.
German indoor championships, women's shot put
- Sport-Komplett
Stephanie Storp is unusually tall for a woman with 1.94 metres. During her active career she weighed 95 kg.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Storp, Stephanie
1968 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Braunschweig
LG Braunschweig athletes
German female shot putters
Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletes of Germany
German women's basketball players
World Athletics Championships medalists
German national athletics champions