Wolfgang Schmidt (born 16 January 1954) is a German former

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 for

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 ...

at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

and won 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 ...

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 ...

. A former

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 ...

holder, he also won several medals at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

. Schmidt made headlines in 1982 due to his failed attempt to escape from East Germany. He later competed for the

Federal Republic of 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 between ...

and won third place in the 1990 European Athletics Championships. Born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, he competed for the

SC Dynamo Berlin The Sports Club Dynamo Berlin was an East German sports club that existed from 1954 to 1991. It was the largest sports club of SV Dynamo, the sports association of the security agencies. The club was disbanded after German reunification and even ...

Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo The Sportvereinigung Dynamo () (''Dynamo Sports Association'') was the sport association of the security agencies (Volkspolizei, Ministry for State Security, fire department and customs) of former East Germany. The association was founded on 27 ...

Athletic achievements

* 1973: European Junior Championships: first place in discus (61.30) * 1974: European Championships: eighth place in discus (59.56) * 1976:

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 ...

: second place in discus (63.68 – foul – 65.16 – foul – 63.96 – 66.22) * 1978: European Championships: first place in discus (64.04 – 61.68 – 64.52 – 62.08 – 65.94 – 66.82); third place in

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 ...

(19.86 – 19.63 – 19.92 – 19.62 – 20.30 – 19.49) * 1980:

: fourth place in discus (65.64) * 1990: European Championships: third place in discus (61.28 – 60.84 – foul – 64.08 – 64.10 – foul), competing 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 ...

. * 1991:

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, ...

: fourth place in discus (64.76) His personal best throw was 71.16 metres, achieved in August 1978 in

. This ranks him third among German discus throwers, only behind

Jürgen Schult Jürgen Schult (, ; born 11 May 1960) is a German former track and field athlete and, as of September 2021, the world record holder in the discus. Dating from 1986, this is the longest-standing record in men's track and field. Schult represent ...

and

Lars Riedel Lars Peter Riedel (born 28 June 1967, in Zwickau) a former German discus thrower. Riedel has the seventh longest discus throw of all-time with a personal best of 71.50 m. Riedel began his discus career in the former German Democratic Republic. H ...

Flight from East Germany

After a disappointing fourth-place finish at the 1980 Olympics and missing the 1981 World Cup in Rome due to a second-place finish in the East German Championships, Schmidt decided to pursue athletic success in the West. He was constantly under surveillance by the

Volkspolizei The ''Deutsche Volkspolizei'' (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the ''Volkspolizei'' or VoPo, was the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a h ...

and they uncovered a plan for his escape (aided by discus colleagues

Ricky Bruch Björn Rickard "Ricky" Bruch (; 2 July 1946 – 30 May 2011) was a Swedish discus thrower, poet and actor. Career Bruch was born in Örgryte, Gothenburg, grew up in Skåne, and was later a long-time resident of Malmö. His main discipline was ...

and

Alwin Wagner Alwin Josef Wagner (born 11 August 1950 in Melsungen, Hessen) is a West German discus thrower and weight lifter, who was affiliated with ''University Sportclub Mainz'' (USC Mainz). He finished sixth at the 1984 Summer Olympics. In Germany he i ...

); in the autumn of 1982, Schmidt was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. However, one year later he was paroled, on the condition he become a coach with SC Dynamo Adlershof, a sports team of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Watch Regiment. Schmidt filed a departure request so that he could continue his athletic career in the West. At the end of 1987, he was allowed to move to West Germany, though it was already too late to be considered for the

1988 Olympic Games 1988 Olympics refers to both: *The 1988 Winter Olympics, which were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada *The 1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul ...

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 ...

. After the first track competition between East and West Germany,

, having won the discus throw, refused to shake hands with Schmidt.

Life after political turmoil

In 1992 Schmidt unseated Jürgen Schult as the German champion in the discus throw. He competed in the qualification meets for the 1992 Olympic Games in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, but was not considered for the German Olympic team (rival Jürgen Schult was chosen and went on to win the silver medal). Schmidt later moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and became a stockbroker and management consultant. In East Germany, Schmidt competed for

SV Dynamo The Sportvereinigung Dynamo () (''Dynamo Sports Association'') was the Sports associations (East Germany), sport association of the security agencies (Volkspolizei, Stasi, Ministry for State Security, fire department and customs) of former East G ...

and trained with Joachim Spenke. He later competed for LG VfB Stuttgart and Stuttgarter Kickers. While competing, he was 1.99 meters tall and weighed 115 kg.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Wolfgang 1954 births Living people East German male discus throwers West German male discus throwers German male discus throwers Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of East Germany Athletes from Berlin World record setters in athletics (track and field) European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for East Germany Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade gold medalists for East Germany Medalists at the 1979 Summer Universiade