It was also the beauty of failure that made Peter-Michael Kolbe famous. His five world titles in the single sculls are still a record to this day. And no other rower has ever won the election for Germany’s Sportsman of the Year (1975). But Kolbe became known above all for his eternal and all-losing duels with the Finn Pertti Karppinen and GDR rower Thomas Lange for Olympic gold. Now the idol is dead, Kolbe died in a nursing home at the age of 70, as the German Rowing Association confirmed.
It all started in Hamburg, where Kolbe attracted attention as a teenager with his enormous height and his calm, long rowing strokes. When he beat Russian Olympic champion Yuri Malyshev in 1973, the steep rise began. As the North German loner that Kolbe is, he feels at home in a single, even though he briefly sits in an eight. On August 30, 1975, in Nottingham, England, Kolbe fulfilled the prophecies and became world champion at just 22 years old. He followed up in 1978, 1981, 1983 and 1986.
The only thing that doesn’t work out is gold at the Summer Games. In 1976 in Montreal, Kolbe experienced a dramatic slump despite being in the lead for a long time. A “vitamin injection” that was legal at the time probably lost its effect too early, but Karppinen won. “It bothers me. I feel misplaced. Doping is what is on the doping list. “But the drug wasn’t banned back then,” Kolbe once told the Bild newspaper.
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In 1980 in Moscow, Kolbe was not allowed to start because of the Olympic boycott, but Karppinen won again. In 1984 in Los Angeles there was a chance for revenge, but once again the Finn had the better end for himself. In 1988 in Seoul, Kolbe finally beat his rival – and only came second again because this time GDR rower Lange was stronger and won gold.
“I wanted the gold, but I didn’t get it. Nevertheless, my career fills me with pride,” says Kolbe. In 1981 he received the Silver Laurel Leaf, in 1988 the Federal Cross of Merit, and in 2016 he was the fourth rower to be inducted into the “Hall of Fame” of German sports as a “Skuller phenomenon”.
