Manfred Gelpke was a member of the East German coxed fours that won the Olympic silver medal at Mexico in 1968. In his early years, he rowed in the coxless pairs with the non-Olympian Lothar Schmidt, winning two silver medals at the East German nationals in 1963-64. Gelpke then rowed with Klaus Jacob, and won the national title in 1966. Both then moved into the eights, and won the national title in 1968.
The eights were then split into a coxed fours and coxless fours for the 1968 Olympics, with Gelpke and Jacob rowing with the coxed four. This crew won the East German title in 1969. Gelpke later studied sports at the DHfK in Leipzig, and became a sports teacher.
East Germany