Falk Cierpinski: Waldemar’s record might fall in the future

Heinz-Florian Oertel, the prominent TV sports commentator from the former GDR, had been so enthusiastic when he saw Waldemar Cierpinski take a second marathon Olympic gold medal when retaining his title at the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 that he made a now renowned comment:

“Men, fathers be courageous: Call your new born sons Waldemar today!”

It is unknown how many babies were called Waldemar on that 1 August 1980, but it is said that there were some. What we do know is that unfortunately there are no strong marathon runners among those Waldemars. But there is one with the name of Cierpinski. And this is no coincidence. Falk Cierpinski is Waldemar’s 30-year-old son.

Originally Falk Cierpinski had targetted the Olympic Marathon in Beijing. Although he was the fastest German marathon runner after the spring races he was not nominated since he had missed the A standard of 2:13. Instead of Beijing, Falk opted for the Berlin Marathon, where he came in ninth and improved to 2:13:30. This remained the fastest German marathon time this year and it was the best German male placing in the Berlin Marathon since 1990!

Coming from East Germany Waldemar Cierpinski had never been able to run the Berlin Marathon when he was an elite athlete. The most successful German male marathon runner had taken the Olympic gold in Montreal in 1976, clocking 2:09:55, which remained his personal best. With that time he still is the fifth fastest German runner ever.