Stefan Holtz

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Stefan Holtz (born 27 February 1981 in Neubrandenburg) is a German flatwater canoer and current (2006) world and European champion.

A junior European champion from 1998 (C2 1000m with Thomas Lueck), Holtz is best-known as a member of the successful Germany four-man Canadian canoe crew. In 2005 in Poznań, Poland they became European champions in the C4 1000m and won two bronze medals (C4 200m and C4 500m. At the world championships in Zagreb, Croatia they were bronze medallists over 1000m but finished in fourth place, just outside the medals, in the other two distances.

Holtz and his team-mates retained their 1000m European title in 2006 in Račice. Czech Republic. In the final they set a new official world record of 3:14.459, smashing the old record by over a second. They then went on to become world champions for the first time in Szeged, Hungary. Holtz also won a C2 500m world silver medal with partner Robert Nuck.

He took up canoeing at the age of nine at the Neubrandenburg Canoe Club. Since 2002 he has been a member of the Rheinbrüder Karlsruhe club where he is trained by Detlef Hofmann. Holtz is 200cm tall (6'7") and weighs 104kg (229 lbs).