Ute Geweniger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olympic medal record
Women's swimming
Gold	1980 Moscow	100 m breaststroke
Gold	1980 Moscow	4x100 m medley relay

Ute Geweniger (born February 24, 1964 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany) was a breaststroke and medley swimmer of the 1980s who was a leading member of the East German swimming team. She won two Olympic gold medals, in the 100 m Breaststroke and 4x100 m medley relay at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and set seven individual and two relay world records. She was named by Swimming World magazine as World Swimmer of the Year in 1983 and as the European Swimmer of the Year in 1981 and 1983, but her achievements are regarded with suspicion due to the state-run systematic doping program run by East Germany. She later admitted to having been doped.

Geweniger came to prominence when she set a world record in the 100 m breaststroke in qualifying for the East German team for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. There she captured gold, setting another world record in the process. She then combined with Rica Reinisch, Andrea Pollack and Caren Metschuck to claim gold in the medley relay, also in world record time. In 1981, she broke the 100 m breaststroke world record twice, and the 200 m Individual medley world record, prior to the European Championships in Split, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). There she claimed gold in the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke (breaking a world record in the former), 200 m individual medley, medley relay, as well as a silver in the 400 m individual medley behind team-mate Petra Schneider. At the World Championships the following year in Guayaquil, Ecuador, she won gold in both the 100 m breaststroke and the medley relay, combining with Ines Geissler, Birgit Meineke and Kristin Otto to again lower the world record. At the 1983 European Championships in Rome, Italy, she again won the breaststroke double, the 200 m individual medley and the 4x100 m medley relay, setting a world record in the 100 m breaststroke. Geweniger was tipped for further Olympic success, but her career was ended when the Soviet bloc, including East Germany, staged a retaliatory boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles.

[edit] External links

• Geweniger Doping confession

Olympic champions in women's 100 m breaststroke
1968: Đurđica Bjedov | 1972: Catherine Carr | 1976: Hannelore Anke | 1980: Ute Geweniger | 1984: Petra van Staveren | 1988: Tania Dangalakova | 1992: Yelena Rudkovskaya | 1996: Penny Heyns | 2000: Megan Quann | 2004: Luo Xuejuan