Jana Sorgers represented East Germany as a rower in the quadruple sculls at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and won the gold medal. Eight years later at Atlanta she represented re-unified Germany, and added another gold with the quadruple sculls. She also won six World Championship gold medals with this boat (1986-87, 1990-91 and 1994-95), and with Beate Schramm in the 1989 double sculls.
In 1997, Sorgers was awarded the Thomas-Keller-medal as the leading female rower. She was also awarded the Silver Bay Leaf, Germany’s highest sports award. She married former rower, and later board member of the German Sports Aid Foundation, Oliver Rau. By profession, she managed her own personal training center in Bremen.