Olaf Heukrodt

East German flatwater canoeist Olaf Heukrodt won five medals in five Olympic races. He earned gold in the C1-500 at the 1988 Seoul Games, silvers in the 1980 and 1988 C2-1,000 with Uwe Madeja and Ingo Spelly, respectively, and bronze medals in the C1-500 at the 1980 Moskva and the 1992 Barcelona Games, by then representing reunified Germany. He likely would have won more medals if the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics had not been boycotted by most Eastern Bloc countries.

Heukrodt also won seven gold, four silvers and one bronze medal at the Canoe Sprint World Championships: gold in 1981, 1982, and 1985-87 in the C1-500; in the 1987 C1-1,000; and in the 1985 C2-1,000 (with Alexander Schuck); silver in 1981 in C2-1,000 (with Madeja), in the 1983 C2-1,000 (with Schuck), and in the 1989 C1-500 m, and the 1991 C4-1,000 m. He also added a bronze medal in the 1991 C1-500.

Heukrodt studied sports science at the Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur DHfK at Leipzig, but then trained and worked as a bank clerk. He married former world class swimmer and World Champion, but non-Olympian, Birgit Meineke. After his active career, Heukrodt became a canoeing coach and canoe sports administrator. After German reunification he was a member of the German NOC and in 2005 president of the German Canoe Federation, retiring from that position in 2010. He was also a board member at the European Canoe Association and was chief coach at the Regional Olympic Center at Leipzig.