Thomas_Schönlebe
Thomas Schönlebe
German sprinter
Thomas Schönlebe (born 6 August 1965) is a retired East German track and field athlete who competed in the 400 metres. He won the gold medal at the 1987 World Championships. In that race, he set a European record of 44.33 seconds which stood for 35 years before it was broken by Matthew Hudson-Smith in August 2023.
A year earlier, Schönlebe had finished second at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart behind Roger Black. One of his last achievements was the third place at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart with the (now unified) German 4 × 400 m relay team.
Schönlebe achieved three world indoor records during his career[1]
- 45.41 s in the 400 m on 9 February 1986;
- 45.05 s in 400 m on 5 February 1988;
- 3:03.05 in 4x400 m relay as a member of a German team on 10 March 1991.
Note: Schönlebe's first record has the distinction of being the inaugural record at the distance when the IAAF established the category of world indoor records on 1 January 1987.
Schönlebe later became chief executive officer of his hometown club, LAC Erdgas Chemnitz[3]
In 1994, he was awarded the Rudolf Harbig Memorial Award.
