Hans Heinrich Sievert (1 December 1909 in Grittern near

Hückelhoven Hückelhoven (; li, Hukkelhaove ) is a town in the district of Heinsberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Rur, approx. 10 km east of Heinsberg, 20 km south-west of Mönchengladbach and approx. 15 km ...

– 5 April 1963 in

Eutin Eutin () is the district capital of Eastern Holstein county located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As of 2020, the town had some 17,000 inhabitants. History The name Eutin (originally Utin) is of Slavic origin. Its meaning i ...

) was a German Olympic decathlete. He competed at the 1932 Summer Olympics and the 1936 Summer Olympics. In 1934 he became the last decathlon world record holder under the 1915 method of scoring, with 8790.46 points, and won the gold medal at the 1934 European Championships. In the Nazi period in Germany, Sievert was seen as a symbolic hope of the German "master race" in the 1936 Summer Olympics. However, he was injured during the games and the gold medal was won by American

Glenn Morris Glenn Edgar Morris (June 18, 1912 – January 31, 1974) was a U.S. track and field athlete. He won a gold medal in the Olympic decathlon in 1936, setting new world and Olympic records. He attended Colorado A&M — now known as Colorado Sta ...

, who also beat Sievert's record. Sievert was recommended to leave the sport after his injury. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Sievert became an officer of the German armed forces. In Hungary in 1944, he lost his left foot to a land mine. After the war, Sievert became the chairman of Hamburg's track-and-field event federation and a sport advisor to the German government. He became ill in 1957 and quit his work, moving into the home of his father in

. He married Ruth Hagemann, a fellow athlete that Sievert met while training in the 1930s, and had two daughters who also became athletes.

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* 1909 births 1963 deaths German decathletes German male discus throwers German male shot putters Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Germany German military personnel of World War II European Athletics Championships medalists People from Heinsberg (district) Sportspeople from Cologne (region) {{Germany-decathlon-bio-stub