Viola Poley (later Kowalschek, born 13 April 1955) is a German

rower Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is di ...

who competed for

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

in the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

. She was born in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

in 1955. In 1976, she was a crew member of the East German boat, which won the gold medal in the

quadruple sculls A quadruple sculling boat, often simply called a quad and abbreviated 4x, is a rowing boat used in the rowing (sport), sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four people who propel the boat by sculling with two Oar (sport rowing), oars, ...

event under her maiden name. She competed at the

1977 World Rowing Championships The 1977 World Rowing Championships was the 6th World Rowing Championships. The championships were held from 19 to 28 August 1977 on the Bosbaan rowing lake in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Medal summary About 556 rowers from 28 countries competed a ...

in the coxed quad sculls under her married name and won gold. In February 1978, she was given the sports awards Honoured Master of Sports.

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* 1955 births Living people East German female rowers Olympic rowers for East Germany Rowers at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic medalists in rowing World Rowing Championships medalists for East Germany Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Rowers from Berlin 20th-century German women {{Germany-rowing-Olympic-medalist-stub