Javelin thrower Klaus Wolfermann is dead – he became Olympic champion in 1972

According to everything that modern training theory tells us, Klaus Wolfermann should never have become what he became, namely a javelin thrower. And certainly not a successful one. With his height of 1.76 meters, his weight of around 90 kilos and his beefy physique, he certainly did not correspond to the ideal image of this discipline: He was neither tall, nor was he slim, nor did he have long arms, so he was missing essentials Requirements for throwing the 800 gram piece of sports equipment far. But what Klaus Wolfermann had was “a train that just rushes,” as one contemporary witness remembers. He probably got this arm strength from his father, a blacksmith from the small Franconian town of Altdorf near Nuremberg. And with this move, “little Gstumperte,” as he described himself, achieved the greatest successes that a track and field athlete could achieve in the 1970s.