Kristin Otto (; born 7 February 1966) is a former German swimmer, becoming Olympic, World and European champion, multiple times. She is most famous for being the first woman to win six gold medals at a single Olympic Games, doing so at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.Otto, Kristin.
Chambers Biographical Dictionary. London: Chambers Harrap, 2007. ''Credo Reference''. Web. 2 July 2011. In

long course An Olympic-size swimming pool is a swimming pool which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for swimming at the Summer Olympics and the swimming events at the World Aquatics Champion ...

, she held the world records in the 100 meter and 200 meter freestyle events. Otto was also the first woman to swim the short course 100 meter backstroke in under a minute, doing so at an international short course meet at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

in 1983.

Career

Otto was born in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Bezirk Leipzig (present-day Sachsen), East Germany, and began swimming at the age of 11, training in an East German sports academy. At sixteen, she participated in her first world championships, the 1982 World Aquatics Championships, winning the gold medal in the 100 meter backstroke as well as two additional gold medals in the 4×100 m relays with the East German team. After 1982, Otto changed coaches and began concentrating on other speed strokes. At the following European Championships in 1983, Otto finished second in the 100 meter freestyle, following her fellow East German, Birgit Meineke. In 1984, Otto set a world record in the 200 meter freestyle. She was expected to win gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, but was unable to compete due to the

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...

by 14 Eastern Bloc countries, including East Germany. In 1985 she fractured a vertebra, keeping her from competing for most of the year or to go to the European Championships. Otto returned to competitive swimming at the 1986 World Championships in Madrid, where she won 4 gold medals (100 m freestyle, 200 m individual medley, 4×100 m medley relay and 4×100 m freestyle relay) and 2 silver medals (50 m freestyle, 100 m butterfly). Her success continued the following year at the 1987 European Championships where she won 5 gold medals. At the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games she once again was expected to win Olympic gold. She won six gold medals, as well as setting Olympic records in the 50 m freestyle and 100 m butterfly. Otto retired from swimming in 1989. She currently works as a sports reporter for German television. She was named the Female World Swimmer of the Year in 1984, 1986 and 1988 by ''

Swimming World } ''Swimming World'' is a US-based quarterly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'' (kn ...

''. In October 1986, she was awarded a Star of People's Friendship in gold (second class) for her sporting success. Otto's career was marred by the revelations of widespread performance-enhancing drugs used by East German athletes: former teammate Petra Schneider openly admitted that she had used banned substances. However, Otto stated that she was not aware that she was being doped and she passed all the doping tests during competition, saying: "The medals are the only reminder of how hard I worked. It was not all drugs."Lord, Craig (7 March 2006)
Germans bid to purge themselves from their doping past
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''. Retrieved on 2009-04-09.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otto, Kristin 1966 births Living people Swimmers from Leipzig Sportspeople from Bezirk Leipzig East German female freestyle swimmers East German female medley swimmers Olympic swimmers for East Germany Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for East Germany World record setters in swimming Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics German female butterfly swimmers German female medley swimmers German female backstroke swimmers World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming German sports journalists German sports broadcasters European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Olympic gold medalists in swimming Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold ZDF people ZDF heute presenters and reporters East German female backstroke swimmers East German female butterfly swimmers German female freestyle swimmers

Career

See also

References

External links