Heike Henkel (; born Heike Redetzky; 5 May 1964) is a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
former
athlete
An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...
competing in
high jump
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...
. She was Olympic, World and European champion. She won the high jump
gold medal
A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture.
Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...
at the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...
in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
.
Biography
Having competed for West Germany at the Olympic Games in 1984, where as a 20-year-old she finished eleventh (with a jump of 1.85 meters), and 1988, where she failed to qualify for the final, she emerged as the world's leading female high jumper of the early 1990s. She won the gold medal at the
1990 European Athletics Championships in Split, and the
1991 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo with a then-German record of 2.05 metres. She then won gold at the
1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona with a jump of 2.02 metres. That year, Henkel improved the indoor world record to 2.07 meters at the German Indoor Championships in Karlsruhe and only dipped below 2 metres twice in all her competitions that year (clearing 1.98 metres on both occasions).
She became the first high jumper to become European Champion, World Champion, and Olympic Champion in three consecutive years (1990-1992). She also won World Indoor and European Indoor titles in titles and was a 20-time German champion.
She is one of only four female high jumpers in history to have won all five titles, the other two being
Stefka Kostadinova,
Mariya Lasitskene and
Yaroslava Mahuchikh. In 2021, Lasitskene joined Henkel to became the fourth female high jumper in history (with Kostadinova, and
Anna Chicherova
Anna Vladimirovna Chicherova (; born 22 July 1982) is a Russian-Armenian high jumper. She was the gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and was originally awarded a bronze medal in the event ...
) to win gold at both the Olympic Games and the World Championships.
Personal life
Henkel was born in
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
,
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
. From 1989 to 2001, she was married to
swimmer
Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...
Rainer Henkel and interrupted her career twice to give birth to their sons Ravn and Morten, in 1994 and 1997.
On 30 April 2004 she married
decathlete Paul Meier. Their daughter
Marlene Meier is also an athlete and competed for Germany at the
2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
She earned a degree in graphic design from the
Cologne University of Applied Sciences.
Competition record
Note: Henkel was forced to withdraw from the 1993 World Championship final due to injury, having cleared 1.90 m in the qualifying round.
See also
*
Female two metres club
References
External links
*
*
*
Leverkusen who's who
1964 births
Living people
German female high jumpers
Sportspeople from Kiel
Athletes from Schleswig-Holstein
Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletes for Germany
Olympic athletes for West Germany
Olympic gold medalists for Germany
World Athletics Championships medalists
European Athletics Championships medalists
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners
IAAF World Athlete of the Year
World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists
World Athletics Indoor Championships winners
World Athletics Championships winners
West German Athletics Championships winners
20th-century German sportswomen
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