Uwe Beyer

Born in Kiel, hammer thrower Uwe Beyer represented Leverkusen and Mainz, together with decathlete Horst Beyer, to whom he is not related. Uwe Beyer was formerly active in football, boxing, and handball. At the European Championships Beyer won gold in 1971, bronze in 1966 and was fifth in 1974. He won eight consecutive German national titles (1964-71), and received the “Silberne Lorbeerblatt” (Silver Bay Leaf) in 1964. For the mixed German team he won the bronze medal in 1964, then failed the qualification four years later, and finally placed fourth in 1972 at the Munich Olympics.

Beyer died in 1993, suffering a stroke during a tennis match at his holiday resort near Antalya (Turkey), and died only one day after his 48th birthday. It was considered that this was possibly due to his years of doping abuse, which he had admitted in a 1977 interview in the “Aktuelles Sportstudio” (Actual Sports Studio) on ZDF. In 1966, Beyer played the figure “Siegfried” in Arthur Brauner’s film “Die Nibelungen”. He studied sports and later ran a sports store in Mainz. His father Erich failed to qualify for the Olympic Games 1936 in Berlin as a shot putter.

Personal Best: HT – 74.90 (1971).