Foil fencer Udo Wagner became the only Olympic fending medal winner from the former GDR when he won the silver medal in the individual foil event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. With the team he missed out on another medal chance when they lost the bout for third place against Hungary and finished fourth. Four years later at Barcelona, Wagner lost the third place bout in the individual event against Elvis Gregory from Cuba, but won the gold medal with the re-unified German team.
At World Championships, Wagner won a team bronze for East Germany in 1986 and two team silvers in 1991 and 1994 for Germany. He also added another gold medal at the 1993 Worlds with the foil team. Domestically, he won the German title in 1992-93 and 1996. In 1993, he was awarded the Silver Bay Leaf, Germany’s highest sports award. Wagner later became fencing coach of the German modern pentathletes.