Sports in the GDR

The country of 15 million people has achieved enormous success in sports throughout its history. Until 1964, at all post-war Olympic Games, German athletes from West and East Germany competed as one team - the “United German Team” (UGC). The last such Olympiad was the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, where OGK took fourth place in the unofficial medal standings, following the USA, USSR and Japan.

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the athletes of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany competed separately, and the GDR became fifth, and the Federal Republic of Germany only eighth in the medal standings. In Munich in 1972, GDR athletes came third (following the USSR and USA national teams).

In 1976 in Montreal and in 1980 in Moscow, the GDR came second in the medal standings after the USSR.

In 1988, in Seoul, the GDR again came in second place.

The names of athletes from the GDR in the 1970-80s thundered throughout the world: athletes Heike Drexler and Marita Koch, swimmers Christine Otto and Barbara Krause, rowers Kai Blum and Birgit Fischer-Schmidt. Winter sports also had their heroes, for example, figure skaters Gabriele Seifert and Katharina Witt, speed skater Gunda Niemann.