Thomas Schönlebe (born 6 August 1965) is a retired East German
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 who competed in the
400 metres
The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...
. He won the gold medal at the
1987 World Championships. In that race, he set a
European record of 44.33 seconds which stood for 35 years before it was broken by
Matthew Hudson-Smith in August 2023.
A year earlier, Schönlebe had finished second at the
1986 European Championships in Stuttgart behind
Roger Black. One of his last achievements was the third place at the
1993 World Championships in Stuttgart with the (now unified) German 4 × 400 m relay team.
Schönlebe achieved three world indoor records during his career
:
* 45.41 s in the 400 m on 9 February 1986;
* 45.05 s in 400 m on 5 February 1988;
* 3:03.05 in 4 × 400 m relay as a member of a German team on 10 March 1991.
Note: Schönlebe's first record has the distinction of being the inaugural record at the distance when the IAAF established the category of world indoor records on 1 January 1987.
Schönlebe later became chief executive officer of his hometown club, LAC Erdgas Chemnitz
In 1994, he was awarded the
Rudolf Harbig Memorial Award.
International competitions
Note: Schönlebe qualified for the 1988 European Indoor final but withdrew.
World rankings
Schonlebe was ranked among the best in the world at the 400 m sprint events in the period 1983–87 (including world number one in 1987), according to the votes of the experts of ''
Track and Field News
''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field
Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includ ...
''.
See also
*
List of European Athletics Championships medalists (men)
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schonlebe, Thomas
1965 births
Living people
People from Frauenstein, Saxony
German male sprinters
East German male sprinters
Olympic athletes for East Germany
Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletes for Germany
Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics
World Athletics Championships athletes for Germany
World Athletics Championships athletes for East Germany
World Athletics Championships medalists
European Athletics Championships medalists
World Athletics Indoor Championships winners
World Athletics Championships winners
Friendship Games medalists in athletics
Athletes from Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt
East German Athletics Championships winners
SC Karl-Marx-Stadt athletes