Erika Fisch (29 April 1934 – 9 November 2021) was a German athlete. She represented the

United Team of Germany The United Team of Germany () was a combined team of athletes from West Germany and East Germany that competed in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Winter Olympic Games, Winter and Summer Olympic Games. In 1956, the team also included athletes from a third ...

at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XVI Olympiad and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December ...

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, placing fourth in the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

. At the 1962 European Championships she won silver in the

4 × 100 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky i ...

with the

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team and tied for bronze in the 80 m hurdles.

Biography

In March 1954 Fisch broke the unofficial indoor world record in women's long jump, jumping 5.95 m. At that summer's

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

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Fisch placed fourth with a jump of 5.81 m, only 2 cm behind bronze medallist

Elżbieta Duńska Elżbieta or Elžbieta may refer to: * Elżbieta, Lublin Voivodeship, a village in eastern Poland * Elżbieta-Kolonia Elżbieta-Kolonia is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Opole Lubelskie, within Opole Lubelskie County, Lublin ...

of Poland. Fisch was part of a German team that broke the 4 × 100 m world record (with a time of 45.1) in 1956. At the

1956 Olympics 1956 Olympics refers to both: *The 1956 Winter Olympics, which were held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy *The 1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XVI Olympiad and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were ...

she injured herself in the long jump, but still placed fourth with a wind-aided 5.89 m; she was supposed to also compete in the 4 × 100 m relay, but had to sit out due to the injury. At the 1958 European Championships in

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Fisch was third in the long jump qualification with a jump of 5.95 m, but only reached 5.72 m in the final and placed twelfth. Fisch missed the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

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after breaking her leg in a skiing accident. She won two medals at the 1962 European Championships in

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, silver in the 4 × 100 m relay (44.6) and bronze in the 80 m hurdles. The hurdles final was extremely close, with Fisch,

Teresa Ciepły Teresa Barbara Ciepły (''née'' Wieczorek; 19 October 1937 – 8 March 2006) was a Polish sprinter and hurdler who competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Biography At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, she represented Poland and won a br ...

Karin Balzer Karin Balzer (''née'' Richert; 5 June 1938 – 17 December 2019) was an East German hurdler who competed in the 80 m hurdles event at the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics, and in the 100 m hurdles in 1972. She won a gold medal in 1964 and a bronz ...

and Maria Piątkowska all running 10.6; eventually, judges announced that Ciepły had won and Balzer placed second, while Fisch and Piątkowska shared third place. In 1964 Fisch again missed out on the Olympics due to an injury. In addition to her relay world record and long jump indoor world best, Fisch twice broke the indoor world best in the 50 m hurdles (7.1 and 7.0) and equalled the indoor world best in the 60 m hurdles (8.4) five times. In his annual rankings starting in 1956,

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

n sports statistician Jan Popper ranked Fisch in the world's top ten five times in the 80 m hurdles (with a peak ranking of No. 4 in 1962) and twice in the long jump (with a peak ranking of No. 3 in 1956). Her personal best in the long jump was 6.21 m from 1958. Fisch died on 9 November 2021, at the age of 87.Erika Fisch Verstorben
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External links

Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisch, Erika 1934 births 2021 deaths Athletes from Hanover German female hurdlers German female sprinters German female long jumpers Olympic female long jumpers Olympic athletes for the United Team of Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists Japan Championships in Athletics winners West German Athletics Championships winners 20th-century German sportswomen