Christoph Höhne

Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing East Germany
Olympic Games
European Championships
World Race Walking Cup

Christoph Höhne (born 12 February 1941 in Borsdorf, Saxony) is a racewalker who competed in the 50 km walk for East Germany in the 1960s and 1970s.

Career

Höhne won the gold medal in the 50 km walk at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and participated in the Olympics in 1964 and 1972. His Olympic victory made history as his margin of victory was over ten minutes.

He participated in an episode of the Cold War in sports at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. On the evening before the race, East German officials received an anonymous tip that he wanted to defect during the 50 km race. They did not believe the allegations, but Höhne went to the start line unnerved and finished in fourteenth place.

Höhne won gold in the 50 km walk at the European Championships in 1969 and 1974, and a silver in 1971.

He won the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in the 50 km walk in 1965, 1967, and 1970, and he placed third in 1973.

During his career Höhne competed for the SV Dynamo sports club and was trained by Max Weber.

Post-career

After his sports career, Höhne studied photography and became a well-known sports photographer in East Germany. Among other accolades, he received a gold medal at the International Sports Photography Exhibition in Reus, Spain in 1978.

After the unification of Germany, he has done freelance photography for the daily newspapers Junge Welt and Sportecho.

Note

Höhne's place of birth is reported as Machern profile (in German) or as Borsdorf 1941 at the Wayback Machine (archived 11 April 2006) (in German) both in Saxony.