Christian Gille

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Olympic medal record
Men's canoeing
Gold	2004 Sydney	C-2 1000m

Christian Gille (born 6 January 1979 in Wolfen), is a German flatwater canoer. he competes in the Canadian canoe events.

A junior world champion (C4 1000m) in 1993 he won two senior world championship gold medals with Thomas Zereske in the C2 200m sprint in 1997 and 1998. They also competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, placing fifth in the C2 500m final.

In 2002 Gille won the only individual (C1) world championship medal of his career. He crossed the line in fourth place in the C1 200m final in Seville, Spain, but was later awarded the bronze medal after Ukrainian Dmytro Sablin tested positive for cannabis. Of more significance for the future however was the formation that year of a new C2 partnership with 19-year-old Tomasz Wylenzek. They finished third in the European Championships and seventh in the C2 500m in Seville.

Two years later they won a surprise gold medal in the C-2 1000m. Gille wore a black armband in memory of his former partner Thomas Zereske who had died earlier that summer.

In 2005 Gille and Wylenzek completely dominated the C-2 event. A clean sweep of medals (200m, 500m and 1000m) at the European Championships in Poznań, Poland, in May was followed by two golds (500m and 1000m) at the 2005 Flatwater Racing World Championships in Zagreb.

2006 proved a disappointment after the highs of the previous two years. Replaced by Stefan Holtz and Robert Nuck as germany's C2 500m representatives they were therefore unable to defend their European and world titles over that distance. They also lost their other titles in competition, coming away with just two silver medals at the major championships (European C2 1000m and world C2 200m), compared with the five golds of 2005.

Gille is a member of the Leipzig club. He is 184 cm (6'0") tall and weighs 87 kg (192 lbs).