Jan Behrendt (born 29 November 1967 in

Ilmenau Ilmenau () is a town in Thuringia, central Germany. It is the largest town within the Ilm district with a population of 38,600, while the district capital is Arnstadt. Ilmenau is located approximately south of Erfurt and north of Nuremberg w ...

, Bezirk Suhl) is an East German- German

luge A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. A luger steers by using the calf muscles to flex the sled's runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh for s ...

r who competed from the mid-1980s to 1998. Together with

Stefan Krauße Stefan Krauße (born 17 September 1967 in Ilmenau, Bezirk Suhl) is an East German-German luger who competed from the mid-1980s to 1998. Together with Jan Behrendt he won two Olympic gold medals ( 1992, 1998) ...

he won two Olympic gold medals (

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

), one silver medal (

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

) and one bronze (

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

) in men's doubles. In addition, they won eleven medals at the FIL World Luge Championships with seven golds (Men's doubles:

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

; Mixed team: 1991, 1993, 1995) and four silvers (Men's doubles:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, Mixed team: 1989,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, 1997). At the FIL European Luge Championships, they won a total of six medals with four golds (Men's doubles:

; Mixed team: 1996, 1998) and two bronzes (Men's doubles:

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

). They won the overall

Luge World Cup The Luge World Cup season is a yearly competition first organized by the International Luge Federation since 1977–78. The World Cup is the highest level season-long competition in the sport. Men's singles *Medals: Women's singles *Med ...

men's doubles title three times (1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96). Behrendt and Krausse retired after the 1998 Olympics. The same year they were proclaimed honorary citizens of Ilmenau.

References

* * * * * 1967 births Living people People from Ilmenau People from Bezirk Suhl German male lugers Sportspeople from Thuringia Olympic lugers of East Germany Olympic lugers of Germany National People's Army military athletes Lugers at the 1988 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in luge Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic silver medalists for East Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver {{Germany-Winter-Olympic-medalist-stub