Walter Steffens (gymnast)

Walter Johan Heinrich Steffens ( born December 26, 1908 in Barnstorf; † August 23, 2006 ) was a German gymnast and Olympic champion.

Walter Steffens was one of the world's best pommel horse gymnast in the 1930s. In 1934 he won the bronze medal in the team all-around at the World Gymnastics Championships in Budapest.

The son of a craftsman's family was at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, together with Alfred Schwarzmann and other Olympic champion in the all around with the German team.

Since September 1, 1936 Steffens worked as a gym instructor Hamburg Turnerschaft of 1816 and reinforced in this function, the Hamburg Art Turner. Now He also took part in the fighting cities Hamburg -Berlin- Leipzig. On October 25, 1936, he was the 32nd urban warfare in the Leipzig Krystallpalast once best individual gymnasts. In the overall standings Leipzig won. In the same year Steffens took on 6 December with the Nordmark team at the Apollo Theatre in Dusseldorf on Gaukampf against the Lower Rhine and won the individual competition.

1938 Steffens German champion on the parallel bars.

Walter Steffens was after the Second World War, sports teacher at the Gymnasium Hamm and at the Freiherr- vom-Stein -Realschule in Bergkamen.

The avid Turner stood in the shadow of the three- time Olympic champion and all-around winner of Berlin, Alfred Schwarzmann, but he was in the 30s as one of the best artists in the world - Pommel Horse during his career. As the turn- veteran admitted later he elegance and technical perfection were always more important than the performance not yet stable maximum difficulty. " I was not a daredevil type. But in Berlin 1936 I managed to almost anything with the jump I was not quite satisfied, "he had said.

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