Harald Gimpel

Harald Gimpel ( born September 6, 1951 in Walldorf, Germany ) is a former German canoeist, who took the canoe slalom for the German Democratic Republic.

Gimpel had learned canoeing on the river Saale and in 1967 was youth champion in one kayak. He was with the team of the ASK forward Leipzig 1971-1974 GDR champion in canoe slalom team standings. 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1977, he finished second in the individual standings to third place in 1975 and 1978, he finished second.

At the 1972 Olympic Games Olympic competitions were held in the canoe slalom for the first time. On the Augsburg Eiskanal Siegbert Horn won from the GDR before the Austrian Norbert Sattler. Harald Gimpel won the bronze medal against the top ranked canoeists of the Federal Republic of Ulrich Peters. After he did not qualify in 1973 for the GDR team, Gimpel 1975 was there again at the World Championships in Skopje. In the individual competition, he won bronze behind Siegbert Horn and Ulrich Peters. In the team competition Horn and Gimpel won together with Christian Döring bronze behind the West German and the Polish team.