Frank Baumgartl

Frank Baumgartl (* May 29, 1955 in Schlema; † August 26, 2010 at Lake Como ) was a German athlete who belonged in the 70s of the 20th century, a world leader in the obstacle course. At the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976, he started for the East and was on July 28, third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

In this race, he was in a promising position next to the eventual winner Anders Gärderud (Sweden) when he crashed on the last obstacle. He ran but bravely continued, and he managed to salvage the bronze medal. With his time of 8:10,36 min he even put a DDR record ( end of 2006 still valid German U23 junior record ). Frank Baumgartl is the only German runner next to Alfred Dompert, who won a medal at the Olympics in the steeplechase.

In addition to the Olympic medal his only international hit, the title of European Junior champion was 1973 in the 2000 -meter steeplechase (world record in 5:28,14 min). This time was in June 2008 still valid German U20 junior record.

Frank Baumgartl competed for the SC Karl- Marx-Stadt and trained with Klaus Kretschmann. At a size of 1.74 m, it had a competition weight of 60 kg.

In 1980, he still finished before the Olympics because of an injury his sports career. He studied automation engineering and a doctorate in 1989 at the Technical University of Karl- Marx-Stadt on the subject of developing a guidance system for the control of an urban district heating system. Later he moved to Baden- Württemberg, where he worked as a development engineer for vehicle software in Stuttgart. On 26 August 2010 he died as a result of heart failure during a bike ride on Lake Como.