Jürgen Schult (; born 11 May 1960) is a German former

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

and, from 1986 until 2024, the world record holder in the

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

. Schult represented

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

in the 1988 Olympic discus competition, where he won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

Biography

Born in Amt Neuhaus, now in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, Schult was unable to compete in the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

due to his country's boycott of the games. He set a

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 organizatio ...

in the discus in 1986. As an athlete under the East German program, his throw of bested the previous record of Soviet athlete, Yuriy Dumchev, of . This discus world record was one of the longest-standing men's world records ever (having surpassed the length of

Jesse Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who made history at the Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics, 1936 Olympic Games by becoming the first person to win four gold meda ...

' long jump record, which stood for 25 years and 79 days) Post, Marty (25 August 2011)
After 51 years, Owens' longevity record finally falls

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

. Retrieved on 21 September 2011. but eventually fell 37 years and 9 months later to Mykolas Alekna throwing . In 1988, at the first ever track and field competition between East and West Germany, Schult refused to shake hands with his former teammate, Wolfgang Schmidt, after beating him; Schmidt had very shortly before moved from East to West Germany. Later in his long sports career, Schult joined the reunified German team. He competed in a second Olympic Games in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, getting a

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, ...

, and the 1999 World Championships, again getting second place. He competed in his final Olympics in 2000 at the age of 40, finishing in eighth place. Schult has a degree in sport, and in 2002 became the trainer of the German track and field association's men's discus team. Schult represented the Traktor Schwerin sports club and trained with Dr. Hermann Brandt, later he represented the Schwerin and Riesa sports clubs and trained with Thomas Schult. While he was actively competing, he was 1.93 meters tall and weighed 110 kilograms.

International competitions

References

Track and Field News

External links

Video of world record
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schult, Jurgen 1960 births Living people People from Lüneburg (district) Athletes from Lower Saxony East German male discus throwers German male discus throwers German athletics coaches Olympic athletes for East Germany Olympic athletes for Germany Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic silver medalists for Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for East Germany World Athletics Championships athletes for Germany World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists World record setters in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships winners Friendship Games medalists in athletics Sportspeople from Bezirk Schwerin East German Athletics Championships winners