Roswitha Krause

Roswitha Krause not only won a swimming silver medal with the East German 4x100 freestyle relay at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Games, but she also unusually added a silver and a bronze medal with the East German female handball national team at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics. She became the first women in Olympic history to win medals in two distinctly different sports (it had been done previously several times in swimming and diving).

In 1971 Krause retired from competitive swimming and started her handball career with TSC Berlin. She then won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1977 and 1979. She also claimed the European Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1978. In 1975 and 1978 she won the World Championships. Later she was employed by Humboldt University in Berlin, where she taught handball and swimming.