Greco-Roman wrestler Heinz-Helmut Wehling won two Olympic medals, a featherweight silver at München in 1972, and a lightweight bronze at Montréal in 1976. A bronze-medal winner at the 1973 World Championships, he won the silver medal in 1974 and in 1977, became the first East German world champion. Wehling was also the European champion in 1970, and a bronze medalist in 1974.
Domestically, Wehling won the East German national title from 1971-75, 1977-78. At the 1979 World Championships, he was one of the first athletes tested for systematic doping practices in the former GDR. By profession, Wehling trained as a ship construction fitter. He legally left the former GDR in 1989 and moved to Saarland. In 1989 he became the regional Olympic coach, and later owned several fitness and physiotherapy studios in Saarland, and Rhineland-Palatinate.
East Germany