View source for Waldemar Cierpinski

{{Short description|East German athlete (born 1950)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{MedalTableTop|Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R0417-025, Karl-Marx-Stadt, X. Internationaler Marathon, Waldemar Cierpinski.jpg|220px|Cierpinski in 1976}}
{{MedalSport | Men's [[Sport of athletics|athletics]]}}
{{MedalCountry | {{GDR}} }}
{{MedalCompetition|[[Olympic Games]]}}
{{MedalGold| [[1976 Summer Olympics|1976 Montreal]]|[[Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon|Marathon]]}} 
{{MedalGold| [[1980 Summer Olympics|1980 Moscow]]|[[Athletics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon|Marathon]]}} 
{{MedalCompetition|[[IAAF World Championships in Athletics|World Championships]]}}
{{MedalBronze| [[1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's marathon|1983 Helsinki]]|[[1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's marathon|Marathon]]}}
{{MedalBottom
}}

'''Waldemar Cierpinski''' (born 3 August 1950) is a former [[East Germany|East German]] athlete and two-time Olympic champion in the [[Marathon (sport)|marathon]].

==Career==
Cierpinski was born in [[Neugattersleben]], [[East Germany]] to Polish parents who had moved to Germany in 1945. He was originally a successful steeplechase runner but decided to switch to the marathon in 1974.

He was virtually unknown when he entered the [[Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon|1976 Olympic marathon]]. He ran with the lead pack until American [[Frank Shorter]] broke free after the 25&nbsp;km mark. Cierpinski chased Shorter down then took the lead, winning the race by 51 seconds. His victory was so unexpected that in [[Football at the 1976 Summer Olympics#Gold Medal match|the Olympic football final]] that evening, goalkeeper [[Jürgen Croy]], invoked Cierpinski, a "living example of mediocrity", to inspire East Germany to a 3–1 victory over fancied Poland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040904/spr-trib.htm |title=Vikramdeep Johal, ''The Tribune Online'', 4 September 2004 |publisher=Tribuneindia.com }}</ref>

Cierpinski finished in fourth place at the 1978 European Championships. In the [[1980 Summer Olympics]], he ran wisely and did not match the suicidal pace the leaders had set. He caught up to the leaders at the 36&nbsp;km mark and soon led by a healthy margin. Although [[Gerard Nijboer]] from the Netherlands narrowed the gap in the last kilometre, Cierpinski sprinted the last 200 m to win his second consecutive Olympic gold medal and duplicate the feat of legendary Ethiopian [[Abebe Bikila]] of winning two straight Olympic marathons.
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-W0801-0126, Moskau, XXII. Olympiade, Waldemar Cierpinski.jpg|thumb|Cierpinski winning the marathon at the 1980 Summer Olympics]]
Cierpinski finished third in the marathon in the [[1983 World Championships in Athletics]]. He was denied a chance of an unprecedented third Olympic marathon win by the [[Eastern Bloc]] boycott of the [[1984 Summer Olympics]] in Los Angeles, which was [[tit for tat]] for the United States-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. He left competition the same year and started a coaching career.

In ''[[Track & Field News]]'' World Rankings, Cierpinski was ranked first in the marathon in 1976 and 1980 and eighth in 1978 and 1983.

Cierpinski is a member of the [[German Olympic Committee]]. Since 2007, Cierpinski has been an honorary member of the SG WiP Goettingen 06.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sgwip.de/ |title=SG WiP Goettingen 06 |publisher=Sgwip.de |access-date=15 September 2008 |archive-date=13 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080313061502/http://www.sgwip.de/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> He lives in [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle an der Saale]].

==Drug allegations==
It is now well known that [[East Germany]] operated a state-sponsored system of providing [[Doping (sport)|performance-enhancing drugs]] to as many as 10,000 athletes from about 1968 to 1988. Cierpinski was implicated by East German track and field research files uncovered by [[Werner Franke]] at the [[Stasi]] headquarters in [[Leipzig]] in the late 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|author=Gare Joyce |url=https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=joyce/080822 |title=Joyce: Marathon fraud – ESPN Page 2 |publisher=[[ESPN]] |date=25 August 2008 }}</ref>

As a result, 1976 silver medallist [[Frank Shorter]] has advocated the belief that Cierpinski cheated and has supported official review of past performances, i.e. considering stripping medals from athletes who are found later on to have cheated, as a deterrent to drug-cheats.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E0DE173CF936A15753C1A96E958260&sec=health&pagewanted=1 OLYMPICS; U.S. Seeks Redress for 1976 Doping In Olympics], By JERE LONGMAN, [[New York Times]], Published: 25 October 1998</ref> Fourth-place finisher [[Don Kardong]] has also written that he believed Cierpinski was involved in the [[Doping in East Germany|East German doping program]].<ref name="Kardong">{{cite book |last1=Kardong|first1=Don |author-link1=Don Kardong |editor1-first=Gail Waesche |editor1-last=Kislevitz |title=The Spirit of the Marathon: What to Expect in Your First Marathon and How to Run Them the Rest of Your Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FADySOIwAOkC |year=2003 |publisher=Breakaway Books |location=Halcottsville, New York |isbn= 978-1-891369-36-0 |pages=197–203 |chapter=Shorter, Rodgers, and Who? |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FADySOIwAOkC&pg=PA197 }}</ref> Shorter's allegations are very similar{{how|date=November 2025}} to those of [[Shirley Babashoff]], who accused the East German women of drug cheating during the swimming events in the same Olympic Games,{{which|date=November 2025}} which was later substantiated by investigators in the [[PBS]] documentary "Secrets of the Dead: Doping for Gold".{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cci}}
* [http://www.cierpinski.de/ Official website]

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{{succession box|before={{flagicon|GDR}} [[Roland Matthes]]|title=[[German Sportspersonality of the year|East German Sportsman of the Year]]|years=1976|after={{flagicon|GDR}} [[Rolf Beilschmidt]]}}
{{succession box|before={{flagicon|GDR}} [[Bernd Drogan]]|title=[[German Sportspersonality of the year|East German Sportsman of the Year]]|years=1980|after={{flagicon|GDR}} [[Lothar Thoms]]}}
{{s-sports}}
{{succession box|before={{flagicon|USA}} [[Bill Rodgers (athlete)|Bill Rodgers]]|title=[[Marathon Year Rankings|Men's Fastest Marathon Race]] |years=1976|after={{flagicon|USA}} [[Bill Rodgers (athlete)|Bill Rodgers]]}}
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{{Footer Olympic Champions Marathon Men}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cierpinski, Waldemar}}
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Salzlandkreis]]
[[Category:East German men marathon runners]]
[[Category:East German men long-distance runners]]
[[Category:East German men steeplechase runners]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Olympic athletes for East Germany]]
[[Category:World Athletics Championships athletes for East Germany]]
[[Category:Olympic gold medalists for East Germany]]
[[Category:World Athletics Championships medalists]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Olympic gold medalists in athletics]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit (honor clasp)]]
[[Category:East German Athletics Championships winners]]
[[Category:Athletes from Bezirk Halle]]