The German sports mourns the loss of Olympic decathlon winner Willi Holdorf. The gold medal winner in Tokyo in 1964, died on Sunday at the age of 80 years, after a severe illness, at home in Achterwehr in Schleswig-Holstein. This is his wife Sabine Holdorf-Schust confirmed on Monday the German press Agency. The first German Holdorf was on 19. October, awarded in 1964 to the “king of athletes”. According to him, this succeeded only in the former GDR-athletes, Christian Schenk, 1988, in Seoul.
With Holdorfs Triumph are mainly associated to the images from the final 1500-Meter race: The final steps to victory, he ran reeling in queue lines. “I was black before the eyes,” said Holdorf once. In the end he prevailed against his adversary Pure Aun from the Soviet Union. Holdorf was gone after nine disciplines with an 18-second lead into the race and came eleven seconds after Aun to the finish. At the end he won with 7887 points.
The gold medal is hanging for years in the German sports – and Olympic Museum in Cologne. After his Coup Holdorf was voted “sportsman of the year” and in 2011 in the “Hall of Fame” of German Sports included. His career, he finished with 24 years, since he had to earn money to feed his family. As a track and field coach, he led the pole vaulters Claus Schiprowski 1968 Olympic silver. From 1971 to 1973, he was the brakeman in the Two – and push the boar in the four-man Bob – and caught up with Horst Floth 1973 EM-Bronze.
the Less success he had as a football coach at Fortuna Cologne. In the second half of the season 1974/75 he could not prevent a five-month term of office after 14 Games in the Bundesliga relegation. After that, he focused on his Job as a representative of the sports article manufacturer Adidas, the he gave up in 2016. As a partner, he wrote the success story of the Handball-Bundesliga and was a member of the Supervisory Board.
decathlon world champion Niklas Kaul and Olympic champion Christian Schenk were shocked at the death of Holdorf. “If you start with the decathlon, then there are a few big names. Willi Holdorf stood there in the very, very top,“ said the 22-year-old Mainz Kaul on Monday the German press Agency. “I had the good fortune to meet him several times, so I am even more shocked.”
Holdorf had followed Kauls surprising world Cup Triumph in 2019 in Doha with enthusiasm. “You could talk to him about a lot of things very well,” said Germany’s current sportsman of the year. “Actually, a common NDR-documentary was not planned this year, due to Corona, the project came to be, unfortunately.”
Also Schenk showed severely affected. “No! I was to his 75. with him, and his wife, I was congratulated yesterday to the
birthday,“ said the Seoul-Olympic champion on the Monday morning of the dpa. “We have us, and to be seen, and then always with “Hello, Mr. Olympia winner,” greetings,” said the 55-year-old Rostock. “Willi was a great sports man and a very good entrepreneur – and for me, he is one of the few that have managed to do both. He was my Idol!“
