Javelin thrower
“Golden Arm” of Munich: Olympic hero Klaus Wolfermann is dead
Javelin thrower Klaus Wolfermann triumphed at the 1972 Olympics in Munich – two days before the terrible attack. He has now died at the age of 78.
Klaus Wolfermann once apologized to his biggest competitor and later friend for his golden throw. With a lead of just two centimeters, Wolfermann was crowned Olympic javelin throw champion in Munich in 1972 ahead of the Latvian Janis Lusis and was celebrated as “the little giant with the golden arm”.
With his open and warm nature, the 1.76 meter tall athlete had many friends in his life. Now German sport is mourning him: Wolfermann died on Wednesday night at the age of 78, as the German Press Agency learned from family circles.
September 3, 1972 was the hosts’ golden Sunday in the Munich Olympic Stadium: Hildegard Falck won the 800-meter run and Bernd Kannenberg won the 50-kilometer walk, as did Wolfermann, and Heide Rosendahl also took silver in the pentathlon.
Wolfermann threw the javelin out to 90.48 meters in his fifth attempt. After the competition, he shrugged his shoulders and approached Lusis, who had previously shone as a serial winner for the Soviet Union. “Sorry, I’m sorry that I won,” he said to him: “He said: It doesn’t matter, I already won in Mexico.” Lusis’ death in April 2020 hit Wolfermann hard: the former rival had long since become a friend.
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Wolfermann was given bodyguards at his side after the attack
Two days after that Sunday in Munich, a Palestinian terrorist organization carried out its murderous attack on the Israeli sports team. Among the eleven hostages killed was the weightlifter Josef Romano, with whom Wolfermann trained before the games.
“Of course I was shocked,” Wolfermann later recalled. Like other German athletes at the time, he was provided with bodyguards. “People not only had concerns, but also fear.”
First Olympic champion, then world record holder
The trained toolmaker from SV Gendorf once came to javelin throwing through gymnastics, handball and the decathlon. Ten days before the 1972 Olympics he exceeded the 90-meter mark for the first time; Lusis was the world record holder at the time with 93.80 meters. In May 1973, Wolfermann surpassed this record in Leverkusen with 94.08 meters. His record stood for more than three years.
The javelin was later changed and the world record today has been held by the Czech Jan Zelezny since 1996 with 98.48 meters. Before Wolfermann, there was only one German Olympic champion in javelin throwing – Gerhard Stöck (1936). Only one after him: Thomas Röhler triumphed – much to Wolfermann’s great joy – in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The 1972 Olympic champion never won a medal at the European Championships. There were no world championships back then. Between 1969 and 1974 he was German champion six times in a row. He missed the 1976 Olympics due to an arm injury.
Twice “Athlete of the Year”
The “Sportsman of the Year” in 1972 and 1973 in the Federal Republic remained connected to sport with his marketing agency even after his active career. The long-time Puma representative from Penzberg was socially involved, including as chairman of FC Olympia. “Any day that doesn’t laugh four or five times is not a good day,” the ambitious amateur golfer once said.
On his 70th birthday in 2016, he reflected: “If I think about it like this: 70 years and now another 10 to 15 years – then I say hello… I’m very attached to life.” Instead of 10 to 15 years, Wolfermann said “Hello” after less than nine years.
DPA
rw / Ulrike John / Christian Johner
