German race walking great Hartwig Gauder passes away at the age of 65 – The man with the „third heart“!

European Athletics is very saddened to hear of the passing of legendary German race walker Hartwig Gauder who died of a heart attack on Wednesday (22) at the age of 65.

After winning the 10,000m race walk at the 1973 European Athletics U20 Championships, Gauder swept all of the major titles in the 50km race walk in a seven year period in the 1980s. After winning the Olympic title in Moscow in 1980, Gauder had to wait six years before adding the European title to his collection in Stuttgart in 1986 before winning the world title in Rome the following year.

Gauder added a bronze medal to his tally at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and his career even spanned German reunification. He won bronze medals for a reunified German team at the 1990 European Championships in Split and 1991 World Championships in Tokyo and his last significant international performance was a sixth-place finish at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.

His championship records lasted a generation. Gauder’s winning times of 3:40:55 at the 1986 European Championships and 3:40:53 at the 1987 World Championships were only beaten by Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski, the only other athlete to win the same trio of major titles in the event, in the early 2000s.

Gauder suffered from health complications after retiring in 1993 and was diagnosed with a bacterial heart infection. He initially received an artificial heart and in 1997 he underwent a heart transplant. From then on he worked tirelessly with various organ donation organisations, ran the New York City Marathon and was disqualified for going too fast. Athletes with heart damage are only allowed to be 6:30 hours fast there, but he went 6.15!

Hartwig Gaudig was active in the 26th BERLIN-MARATHON 1999 and in the 27th BERLIN-MARATHON 2000. And even climbed the highest mountain in Japan, Mount Fuji. He previously spoke at the Sports Forum of the 1999 BERLIN-MARATHON about „Power Walking“ and his life with the third heart. He also read from his book „The second chance. Or my life with the third heart“.  

In 1999 and 2000, Hartwig Gauder was intensively „promoted“ as the „man with the third heart“ by the SFB on radio, television and other media – and on the day of the race on the sidelines of the course, he was already expected, admired and frenetically applauded by the Berlin spectators, as he later recounted.

The successful promotion of healthy POWER-WALKING in Berlin is actually his merit. 

„Hartwig Gauder was not just a walking legend and a great Olympic champion, but an outstanding personality in sport. Despite his great success, he has always stayed on the ground and has always worked for athletics and organ donation even after his heart transplant,” said Jurgen Kessing, President of the German Athletics Association.

“Quite rightly, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Sports in 2016. Our deep sympathy goes to his relatives, whom we wish a lot of strength in times of mourning.”

European Athletics ​with assistance from Horst Milde (BERLIN-MARATHON)

Achievements

1978, European Championships: Place 7 (1:25:15,7 h)
1980, Olympic Games: Gold (3:49:24 h)
1982, European championships: 4th place (4:04:51 h)
1986, European championships: 1st place (3:40:55 h)
1987, world championships: 1st place (3:40:53 h)
1988, Olympics: Bronze (3:56:47 h)
1990, European championships: 3rd place (4:00:48 h)
1991, world championships: 3rd place (3:55,14 h)
1992, Olympic Games: Place 6 (3:56:47 h)

Honours

1980 and 1984 Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver
1986 Star of international friendship in silver
1988 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze
1989 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
1993 Hartwig Gauder receives the „Rudolf Harbig Memorial“ Prize
1998 Hartwig Gauder was awarded the prize for tolerance and fair play [3]
2006 Order of the Faust of the Handwerker Carnevalsverein Weimar
2016 Awarded in the Hall of Fame of German sports

Source: Wikipedia