SC DHfK Leipzig e. V. ''(Sportclub Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur Leipzig e. V.)'' is a sports club in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was established in 1954 as a competitive sports club, initially under the name ''SC Wissenschaft DHfK Leipzig'', and remained part of the East German sports university Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur (DHfK) until the university was closed in 1991. The club has about 6,100 members (2024) and is the biggest in Leipzig.

Successes

Measured by the number of medals won in

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

and

world championship 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 ...

s, SC DHfK is the most successful sports club in the world. Its athletes were particularly successful in the disciplines of track and field, swimming, rowing, canu, handball and cycling. Until 1989, the club's athletes won 93 Olympic gold medals and 136 medals in world championships. Some of the most successful athletes were Gustav-Adolf Schur, Uwe Ampler, Klaus Köste, Christian Gille, Anett Schuck, Günther Merkel, Manfred Merkel,

Angelika Bahmann Angelika Bahmann (born 1 April 1952 in Plauen) is a former East Germany, East German slalom canoeing, slalom canoeist and trainer who competed in the 1970s. She won a gold medal in the Canoeing at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's slalom K-1 ...

, Margitta Gummel, Bärbel Eckert, Siegfried Brietzke, Thomas Munkelt and

Kristin Otto Kristin Otto (; born 7 February 1966) is a former German swimmer, becoming Olympic, World and European champion, multiple times. She is most famous for being the first woman to win six gold medals at a single Olympic Games, doing so at the 1988 ...

Departments

SC DHfK has the following departments: *

Canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...

Cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

Diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

* Finswimming * Fistball * Fitness and health *

Floorball Floorball (also known by other names) is a sport played with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. It is played indoors with sticks and a hollow plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three periods. The sport of bandy also playe ...

Handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

Roller skating Roller skating is the act of travelling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a recreation, recreational activity, a sport, and a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on s ...

* Rowing *

Running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion by which humans and other animals move quickly on foot. Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walkin ...

Skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

Synchronized swimming Synchronized swimming (in British English, synchronised swimming), also known as artistic swimming, is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by World A ...

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 ...

Triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

Water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

* Wheelchair sport

Handball

'' SC DHfK Leipzig Handball''

Rowing

The rowing department was founded in 1866 as ''Ruder-Club Germania''. On April 6 1919, the club joined ''Rudergesellschaft Wiking Leipzig''. After 1945, some rowers left Leipzig and went to

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

where the club continued to exist. Following the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

, the RG Wiking Leipzig of Minden joined SC DHfK Leipzig and existed under the name ''Rudergesellschaft Wiking im SC DHfK Leipzig e. V.'' until 2012. The period after 1990 was marked by radical upheavals in the rowing department. The large coaching staff was reduced to three coaches, national and international successes declined drastically. After Olympic gold medals for Kristina Mundt and Kerstin Müller in 1992, SC DHfK athletes did not participate in Olympic Games until 2008 when Annekatrin Thiele won a silver medal in

double scull A double scull, also abbreviated as a 2x, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars each, one in each hand. Racing boats (often called "shells") ar ...

s. At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in London, Thiele again won a silver medal, this time in the women's quadruple sculls. She continued her winning streak with a gold medal in the same competition in Rio 2016. SC DHfK rowers Philipp Wende and Tim Grohmann also participated in the 2016 Olympics. Wende won a gold medal in the men's double sculls, Grohmann supported the team as a substitute.

Henley Royal Regatta

Rugby

SC DHfK used to have a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

section, which won five East German championships between 1954 and 1963, see RC Leipzig.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leipzig, DHfK Sports clubs and teams in East Germany Multi-sport clubs in Germany Sport in Leipzig Sports clubs and teams established in 1954 1954 establishments in East Germany