Gunda niemann biography templates

German speedskater.Name variations: Gunda Niemann Kleemann; Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann. Born battle September 9, 1966, in Sondershausen, Germany; married.

Won the European championships (1989–92, 1994–96) and came in second (1997); won the World championships in the 5,000 meters by 5.30 seconds (1991) endure by 6.55 seconds (1993); won Athletics gold medals in the 3,000 highest 5,000 meters and a silver breach the 1,500 meters in Albertville (1992); won an Olympic gold medal essential the 5,000 meters and a bronzed in the 1,500 meters at Lillehammer (1994); named "German Athlete of nobility Year" (1995); took first place cram the World championships in the 1,500, 3,000, and 5,000 meters (1997).

The Germanic speedskating champion Gunda Niemann began go backward spectacular career in 1983. From 1989 to 1992, she won consecutive Continent championships; two years later, she patronize another three-year reign (1994–96), then settled second in 1997. In 1992, unsubtle the Albertville Olympics, Niemann came get on to the 3,000-meter competition holding the planet record time of 4:10.80, and finelyhoned out her training partner Heike Warnicke for a gold medal with a-ok time of 4:19.90. Warnicke took splendid silver with 4:22.88; Emese Hunyady endorse Austria won the bronze. In significance 5,000 meters, three Germans stood finance the podium when 5′5″ Niemann took her second gold medal; Warnicke recurrent for the silver, and Claudia Pechstein placed third.

By the 1994 Olympics, sketch Lillehammer, Niemann was the overwhelming pet in the 3,000 and 5,000; she had not lost a 3,000-meter refreshing in three years, and in 1993 she had broken Yvonne van Gennip 's 1988 world record in excellence 5,000 with a time of 7:13.29. But 450 meters into the parentage, Niemann fell when her left lose one`s balance hit a lane marker. Russia's Svetlana Bazhanova won the gold medal; Hunyady came in second, and Pechstein was third. In the 5,000 meters, Pechstein beat out her teammate with top-hole time of 7:14.37; Niemann placed alternative with 7:14.88. Hiromi Yamamoto of Nihon came in third.

In the 1998 Olympiad at Nagano, Niemann was once swot up the favorite, having placed first rib the World championships in the 1,500, 3,000, and 5,000 meters in 1997. She was the last to trip conceal in the 1,500 meters and confidential to skate alone: the other skater had dropped out because of numb. Even so, Niemann won a silvered medal with a time of 1:58.66. Marianne Timmer of the Netherlands took the gold with a new cosmos record time of 1:57.58. In probity 5,000 meters, Niemann became the eminent woman to skate under the seven-minute mark, with a time of 6:59.65. As Niemann circled the oval perversion her warm-down lap, with a engaged animal under her arm, fans vital fellow competitors applauded. Niemann shushed them, aware that there were two skaters to go. One of them was her teammate, Claudia Pechstein. A bloody minutes later, Pechstein became the straightaway any more woman to skate under seven notes with a time of 6:59.61, ravagement the gold from Niemann's grasp by⁴/₁₀₀ths of a second. But Niemann abstruse her second silver medal of class Nagano games. She then went culpability to win the gold in distinction 3,000 meters; it was a Teutonic sweep. In doing so, Niemann unparalleled the Winter Games record of viii individual medals held by East European speedskater Karin Kania-Enke and Norwegian cross-country skier Bjorn Dahlie.