Thomas Schönlebe (born 6 August 1965) is a retired East German

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who competed in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

. He won the gold medal at the 1987 World Championships. In that race, he set a European record of 44.33 seconds which still stands. A year earlier, Schönlebe had finished second at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart behind

Roger Black Roger Anthony Black MBE (born 31 March 1966) is a retired English athlete who competed internationally for Great Britain and England. During his athletics career, he won individual silver medals in the 400 metres sprint at both the Olympic Ga ...

. One of his last achievements was the third place at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart with the (now unified) German 4 × 400 m relay team. Schönlebe achieved three world indoor records during his career : * 45.41 s in the 400 m on 9 February 1986; * 45.05 s in 400 m on 5 February 1988; * 3:03.05 in 4x400 m relay as a member of a German team on 10 March 1991. Note: Schönlebe's first record has the distinction of being the inaugural record at the distance when the IAAF established the category of world indoor records on January 1, 1987. Schönlebe later became chief executive officer of his hometown club, LAC Erdgas Chemnitz In 1994, he was awarded the Rudolf Harbig Memorial Award.

International competitions

Note: Schönlebe qualified for the 1988 European Indoor final but withdrew.

World rankings

Schonlebe was ranked among the best in the world at the 400 m sprint events in the period 1983–87 (including world number one in 1987), according to the votes of the experts of ''

Track and Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on runni ...

''.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schonlebe, Thomas 1965 births Living people People from Frauenstein, Saxony German male sprinters East German male sprinters Olympic athletes of East Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Germany World Athletics Championships athletes for East Germany World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Indoor Championships winners World Athletics Championships winners Friendship Games medalists in athletics Sportspeople from Saxony

International competitions

World rankings

See also

References