Renate Stecher (German pronunciation: [ʁənaːtə ˈʃtɛçɐ], audio^ⓘ; née Meißner, born 12 May 1950) is a German (former East German) sprint runner and a triple Olympic champion. She held 34 world records and was the first woman to run 100 metres within 11 seconds.^[2]

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (February 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 9,116 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Renate Stecher]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|de|Renate Stecher}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts Personal information, Born ...

Renate Stecher

Personal information
Born	12 May 1950 (1950-05-12) (age 73) Süptitz, Saxony-Anhalt, East Germany
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	71 kg (157 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	100 m, 200 m
Club	SC Motor Jena
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	100 m – 10.8 (1973) 200 m – 22.38 (1973)[1]
Medal record Representing  East Germany Olympic Games 1972 Munich 100 m 1972 Munich 200 m 1976 Montreal 4×100 m relay 1972 Munich 4×100 m relay 1976 Montreal 100 m 1976 Montreal 200 m European Athletics Championships 1969 Athens 4×100 m relay 1971 Helsinki 100 m 1971 Helsinki 200 m 1974 Rome 4×100 m relay 1969 Athens 200 m 1971 Helsinki 4×100 m relay 1974 Rome 100 m 1974 Rome 200 m

Close

Born as Renate Meißner, she was a very talented athlete, also competing in the high jump and pentathlon. She debuted internationally at the 1969 European Championships, where she – as a last minute substitute – won a silver medal in the 200 m and a gold in the 4 × 100 m relay.^[2]

In 1970 she was the World Student Games Champion in both the 100 and 200 metres.

At the next European Championships, in 1971, she won both the 100 and 200 m and the silver in the relay. At that time, she was already competing as Renate Stecher, having married hurdler Gerd Stecher the previous year.^[2]

At the 1972 Summer Olympics, Stecher repeated that performance. She won the 100 m in time of 11.07, which was only in 1976 recognised as world record, which had been measured in tenths of seconds before (the times in tenths were later corrected). She also equalled the world record in the 200 meters with a time of 22.40. The following year, Stecher set (hand timed) world records in both sprint events, also becoming the first woman to beat 11 seconds. She clocked 10.9 and 10.8 for the 100 metres and 22.1 for the 200 metres.^[2]

Stecher also won the 200 m. Wilma van den Berg of the Netherlands had qualified for the semifinals, and the 23.22 that she ran in the quarterfinals was faster than the time in the quarterfinals of Stecher.^[3] However, after the killing of 11 Israeli athletes in the Munich Massacre, and the Olympics not being cancelled, van den Berg withdrew from the competition in sympathy with the Israeli victims.^[4] She said that she was leaving in protest of the "obscene" decision to continue with the Olympic Games.^[5]

In Rome at the 1974 European Championships she was defeated in both the 100 m and 200 m, by Irena Szewińska of Poland and had to settle for silver in both distances. However the GDR 4 × 100 m relay team, in which Stecher ran the second leg, won the gold medal in a world record time.^[2]

At the 1976 Summer Olympics, Stecher again competed in the three sprint events, winning medals in all three once again. She was beaten for the 100 m title by Annegret Richter, and came third in a 200 m race with five German women in the first five positions. With the 4 × 100 m relay team they beat West Germany, taking revenge for the race four years earlier.^[2]

Following the release of East German secret service files, it was revealed that many of the country's athletes were involved with a state-sponsored drug program. The files document that Stecher had wanted to step down her drug use after the 1972 Olympics, so that she could safely have children.^[6] Raelene Boyle, who had finished second to Stecher in both the 100 and 200 metres at the Olympics, stated that she felt cheated, as she believed it unlikely that Stecher would have beaten her without the use of performance-enhancing drugs.^[7]

In 2011 Stecher was inducted into the Germany's Sports Hall of Fame.^[2]