Olympic GamesOlympics
On yesterday's day, Steffi Walter-Martin left (in the center and without a cap in the picture) two Olympic olympics championships during the 80's, which was at the same time a sports icon and rebel element in Germany East.
Thursday 22 June 2017 5 minutes reading time
Born on September 17, 1962 in Bad Schelma, the well-known center of Saxony, which has given birth to many top German sportsmen, Steffi Martin started - like all DDR children - to practice sports from a young age. In particular he was very good at the lightweight athletics, where he demonstrated discreet talent in launches.
His natural predation for the toboggan was discovered almost by chance when he was thirteen years old and was particularly gifted to discipline by the despotic sporting system of the DDR to devote himself to the new sport. Steffi, in fact, was reluctant to change, terrified by the idea of ​​throwing at crazy speed within the gut.
However, coach Rolf Hellweg managed to convince her. At least his slittinist career was a great success. In 1982 on the Königsee gut get the first success in the World Cup. The following year, in 1983, he dominated the scene at the World Placement of Lake Placid, where he collected the gold medal with authority.
1984 was the winter of definitive consecration. He triumphed at the Olympic Games in Sarajevo, where he won the gold medal by crushing the competition (he made the best time in all four runs). He also won the Crystal Ball. His winning success also continued in 1985, when in Oberhof he put his gold on his neck again, gaining the aura of unbeatable woman in great appointments.
Surprise, after the 1986 season, decided to have a son. The choice did not like anything to the authorities of East Germany, who even considered it an ex-athlete now. Instead Steffi was able to return (with Walter's surname) and, against any prediction, was able to win the gold medal also in Calgary 1988, thus achieving an unexpected, resounding, song of the swan.
It was an unprecedented enterprise. Never a slider had managed to graduate twice as Olympic champion. However, today's one-two has been equaled only by the compatriot Sylke Otto, winner in 2002 and 2006.
Retired from the agility activity, Steffi had two other children and he devoted himself to the physiotherapy profession. At least until the physician allowed it. In fact, the massive workouts he had to undergo in his youth created enormous imbalances in his back. "I'm 45, but I think I have 80," he said when he received the invalidity pension.
Then, in the fall of 2016, he was diagnosed with a cancer, which he came upon after a few months. So even 55 years ago, Steffi Walter-Martin, whose name (and life), really deserves to be remembered among those who wrote the story of the Olympic Games, has gone.
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