Andrea Ehrig ( Mitscherlich, also known as Schöne, born 1 December 1960) is a retired East German

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

. She was one of the world's best long-distance skaters in the 1980s. A four-time Olympian, she won seven Olympic medals, including gold in the 3000 metres (as Andrea Schöne) at the 1984 Sarajevo Games.

Career

Ehrig was born Andrea Mitscherlich in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

. At the 1976 Olympics in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...

, as a 15-year-old, she won a silver medal in the 3000 m event, just one one-hundredth of a second ahead of

Lisbeth Korsmo Lisbeth Korsmo (14 January 1948 – 22 January 2017) was a Norwegian speed skater, cyclist, and Olympic medalist. She received a bronze medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is ...

who won bronze. At the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid she came fourth in the 3000 metres. Four years later at the 1984 Olympics in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

, competing under her first married name of Schöne, she won silver in both the

1000 1000 or thousand may refer to: * 1000 (number), a natural number * AD 1000, a leap year in the Julian calendar * 1000 BC, a year of the Before Christ era * 1000 metres, a middle-distance running event * 1000°, a German electronic dance music magazi ...

and the

1500 m The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athle ...

and became Olympic champion in the

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

. In 1988, at her fourth and final

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

, competing as Andrea Ehrig, she won two more silver medals in the long distances, and a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. She became European champion five times and

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

twice, in 1983 and 1985. Between 1983 and 1987 she set 10 world records in 1500–10,000 m events. Ehrig was married twice. After the 1980 Winter Olympics, she married the rower Ingolf Schöne and towards the end of that year, it was announced that she was expecting their child. She married a second time in 1985 to fellow Olympic speed skater

Andreas Ehrig Andreas Ehrig (born 20 October 1959 in Langenbernsdorf) is a former speed skater from East Germany. Ehrig took part twice in the Winter Olympics in 1980 and 1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full ...

. Personal bests: *500 m – 40.71 (1988) * 1000 m – 1:19.32 (1988) * 1500 m – 2:01.00 (1986) * 3000 m – 4:12.09 (1988) * 5000 m – 7:17.12 (1988)

References

External links

Andrea Mitscherlich at SkateResults.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrig-Mitscherlich, Andrea 1960 births Living people German female speed skaters Speed skaters at the 1976 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1980 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1988 Winter Olympics Olympic speed skaters of East Germany Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1984 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in speed skating Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic silver medalists for East Germany Olympic bronze medalists for East Germany World record setters in speed skating Sportspeople from Dresden World Allround Speed Skating Championships medalists