Monika Pflug (born 1 March 1954), also known as Monika Holzner-Pflug and Monika Gawenus-Pflug, is a German former

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

. She was born in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and competed for Germany. Pflug's talent for speed skating was discovered in 1968 and the very next year, she already became junior national champion. In 1970, she set a national record on the 1000 m and in 1971, she became national sprint champion. The next year, 1972, was her best year; she first became national allround champion, then, one month later, she won gold on the 1000 m at the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

Sapporo is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in Hokkaido, Japan. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, a tributary of the Ishikari River. Sapporo is the capital ...

, and two weeks after that, she became world sprint champion. After getting married, Pflug started competing as ''Monika Holzner-Pflug'' in the 1974–75 season. The marriage was short-lived, however, and after her divorce she competed as ''Monika Pflug'' again. In 1984, Pflug married fellow speed skater Fritz Gawenus, a multiple national champion. From then on, she competed as ''Monika Gawenus-Pflug''. Pflug would compete in a total of five Winter Olympics between 1972 and 1988, but did not win any more Olympic medals. At the World Sprint Championships, she won three more medals, all bronze, in 1973, 1974 and 1982. She interrupted her speed-skating career for a while to become a mother. Pflug ended her speed-skating career abruptly in 1988 after a new personal and national record on the 500 m in an otherwise disappointing season. By that time, she had gathered 16 national titles and had skated a national record 65 times.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Pflug at important championships she participated in, listing the years in which she won each:

World records

Over the course of her career, Pflug skated one

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the column ''WR'' lists the official world records on the dates that Pflug skated her personal records.

References

External links

Monika Pflug at SkateResults.com

Monika Pflug
from ''Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft e.V.'' (the German Skating Association)
Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database

Historical World Records
from the ''International Skating Union'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Pflug, Monika 1954 births German female speed skaters Speed skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics 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 for West Germany Medalists at the 1972 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in speed skating Olympic gold medalists for West Germany Speed skaters from Munich Living people 20th-century German sportswomen