Christian Schenk
Christian Schenk ( born February 9, 1965 in Rostock ) is a former German athlete who - starting for the GDR - at the 1988 Olympics, won the gold medal in the decathlon.
Life
Christian Schenk is the son of the former East German champion in the hurdles, Eberhard Schenk, and has already stopped in preschool for sports. After he was too big as Turner, he moved in 1975 to athletics and began in 1982 with the decathlon.
He won the silver medal at the European Junior Championships in 1983. The following year, reached Schenk, when he finished fourth in the GDR championships, for the first time about 8000 points ( 8043 points). In 1985, he finished with the East German team in the decathlon European Cup second place. In 1987 he finished fifth at the World Championships in Rome ( 8304 points) and won with the East German team in the decathlon European Cup.
His greatest success came in 1988 with Schenk his victory at the Summer Olympics in Seoul ( 8488 points, individual performances: 11.25 s - 7.43 m - 15.48 m - 2.27 m - 48.90 s - 15.13 s - 49.28 m - 4.70 m - 61.32 m - 4:28,95 min). His high jump performance of 2.27 m is the largest to date skipped in a decathlon height. He scored the only straddle jumpers in the competition, and was probably the last major artist of this jump technique. For his Olympic victory, he was in 1988 awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold.
In Split Schenk won the European Championships in 1990 with 8433 points and the bronze medal at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, he finished third ( 8394 points). At the 1992 Olympics he was unable to attend due to an injury in the final qualifying competition. The following year he exhibited at the World Championships in Stuttgart with 8500 points, his personal best and finished fourth. In 1994 he ended his sports career in which he had become 1985, 1987 and 1990 DDR - runner and 1991 and 1993 German Masters.
Christian Schenk competed in the GDR time for the SC Empor Rostock and trained with Klaus -Gerhard Schlottke. After the end of the GDR, he joined the USC Mainz. He trained under Axel Schaper and Holger Schmidt and co-founded the decathlon team. In the becoming public knowledge after the fall of documents to the state doping in the GDR was found in the doped athletes also the name of Schenk. After the end of the GDR, he was unsurpassed by numerous voluntary doping controls.
During his athletic career, Christian Schenk, had begun to study medicine and later moved to journalism at the University of Mainz. After spending three years at the ZDF sports 1996, he founded his agency for sports and health marketing and incentives in Berlin. Schenk initiated and directs, inter alia, the Sports Aid Elite Forum at Schloss Liebenberg and the educational program for students Recognize your strengths. He is patron of the alliance against depression of the Hanseatic city of Rostock and club athletes for organ donation.
Christian Schenk is divorced, has two sons and lives in Potsdam.