German sport mourns Ilke Wyludda. The 1996 Olympic discus champion in Atlanta died at the age of just 55. After her career, she studied and became a doctor. In 2010 she suffered a stroke of fate.
Ilke Wyludda is dead. The Olympic discus champion died on Sunday in Halle as a result of an illness. Silke Renk, President of the State Sports Association of Saxony-Anhalt and Wyludda’s former training colleague, announced this on Monday, citing the immediate family circle.
“The news is hard and terrible and leaves me stunned. Ilke struggled with health problems early after her career. Every time she grabbed the poop. The entire German throwing community is in mourning. She was always a fighter, but unfortunately lost her last fight far too early,” Renk told dpa.
Wyludda was only 55 years old. She was born on March 28, 1969 in Leipzig and was for a long time one of the world’s best discus throwers. Initially she started for the GDR, but she celebrated her greatest successes in reunified Germany. In addition to her Olympic victory in Atlanta in 1996, she became European champion twice and won two World Championship silver medals.
After her active career as a discus thrower, the qualified sports teacher for therapy rehabilitation and sports for the disabled became a physiotherapist with her own practice and also studied medicine. She successfully completed her studies and worked as an anesthetist in Halle.
Second career as a para-athlete
In 2010, her lower right leg had to be amputated due to a bacterial infection. “It was on a knife’s edge between living and dying,” she later said, looking back: “I was faced with the choice: either lose my leg or no longer live. And I couldn’t decide on that.”
She then started a second sports career and competed in Paralympic competitions in the discus and shot put, including at the 2012 Paralympics in London and came fifth in the shot put. She also won silver in the shot put at the 2015 World Cup and silver in the shot put and bronze in the discus at the 2014 European Championships. In 2017 she also ended this sporting career.
SUF
