Volker Mai (born 3 May 1966 in Templin) is a former

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

er who represented

East Germany 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 ...

. Representing

SC Neubrandenburg 1. FC Neubrandenburg 04 is the German football club based in Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, playing in the 2019-20 Verbandsliga Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (VI). History The earliest forerunner of 1. FC Neubrandenburg 04 was founded in 19 ...

, he holds the current world junior record with 17.50 metres, achieved on 23 June 1985 in Erfurt.

Biography

Mai won his first international medal at the

1985 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1985 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, Piraeus, Attica, Greece, on 2 and 3 March 1985. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Participating nations * (10) * (5) * (13) * (4) * (21) ...

, where he cleared 17.14 m to take the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

.European Indoor Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2012-01-05. He then secured a triple jump and

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

double at the

1985 European Athletics Junior Championships The 1985 European Athletics Junior Championships was the eighth edition of the biennial athletics competition for European athletes aged under twenty. It was held in Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a un ...

held in Cottbus. That same year he ranked second in the triple jump at the 1985 European Cup. The following year he managed seventh at the

1986 European Athletics Championships The 14th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 to 31 August 1986 at the Neckarstadion, now known as Mercedes-Benz Arena, in Stuttgart, a city in West Germany. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. ...

. Another indoor medal followed at the

1989 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1989 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at Houtrust in The Hague, Netherlands, on 18 and 19 February 1989. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Participating nations * (7) * (13) * (8) * (4) * (15) * (3) * (9) * (11) * ( ...

and he was the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

list behind

Nikolay Musiyenko Mykola Musiyenko ( uk, Микола Мусієнко, russian: Николай Мусиенко – Nikolay Musiyenko; born 16 December 1959) is a Ukrainian former triple jumper who represented the Soviet Union and later Ukraine. He won four medals ...

of the USSR. His final appearance for East Germany came at the

1990 European Athletics Championships The 15th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 August to 2 September 1990 in Split, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. The host stadium was Stadion Poljud. It was the last participation of East Germany (which was already scheduled to be merged ...

and he finished fifth behind his compatriot Jörg Friess. He made three major international appearances for Germany in his career: he was fifth at the

1991 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 3rd IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo in Seville, Spain from March 8 to March 10, 1991. It was the first Indoor Championships to include relay races as well as women's triple j ...

, 13th in qualifying at the

1993 World Championships in Athletics The 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Neckarstadium, Stuttgart, Germany between 13 and 22 August with the participation of 187 nations. Having ori ...

and eighth in qualifying at the

1994 European Athletics Championships The 16th European Athletics Championships were held from 7 August to 14 August 1994 in the Olympic Stadium of Helsinki, Finland. Men's results Complete results were published. Track 1986 , 1990 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , Field 1986 , 1990 , 199 ...

. Nationally, he was a four-time East German Indoor triple jump champion (1984, 1985, 1987, 1989) and a two-time East German outdoor champion (1984, 1988). Following

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

he was the German indoor champion in 1991, 1993 and 1995, and took his sole German outdoor title in 1994. In addition to his ten national titles in the triple jump, he was the 1989 East German champion in the long jump. Mai was implicated in state-sponsored doping by Werner Franke and

Brigitte Berendonk Brigitte Berendonk (born 2 May 1942) is a German Sport of athletics, athlete. She competed in the women's discus throw at the 1968 Summer Olympics and the 1972 Summer Olympics. Publications * References

1942 births Living people Peop ...

in their book ''Doping: From Research to Deceit''. Based upon research of leaked

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

files, Franke and Berendonk deduced that Mai had undergone cycles of

Oral Turinabol Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone (CDMT; brand name Oral Turinabol), also known as 4-chloro-17β-hydroxy17α-methylandrosta-1,4-dien-3-one, is an anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS). It is the 4-chloro-substituted derivative of metandienone (dehyd ...

(a banned steroid) in the period of 1982 to 1984.Brigitte Berendonk: ''Doping-Dokumente - Von der Forschung zum Betrug.'' Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1991, , S. 125, Tabelle 7 After his

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 ...

career ended he moved to the United States to study

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

. He received his doctorate in the discipline at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. After gaining a master's degree from Harvard School of Public Health, he took up an assistant professorship at the

University of Maryland Medical School The University of Maryland School of Medicine (abbreviated UMSOM), located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S., is the medical school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is affiliated with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medi ...

. He has worked as an assistant microbiology professor at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

since 2007.World-class athlete finds success in lab, too

(2011-10-31). Retrieved on 2012-01-05.

Achievements

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mai, Volker 1966 births Living people People from Templin People from Bezirk Neubrandenburg East German male triple jumpers Sportspeople from Brandenburg University of Georgia alumni Harvard School of Public Health alumni