Andreas DECKER

Andreas Decker won two consecutive rowing gold medals with the coxless fours at the 1976 Montréal and the 1980 Moskva Olympic Games. He also won four gold medals (1974-75, 1977 and 1979), and one silver (1978), at the World Championships. In 1973, he was also European champion with the coxed eights. Domestically, he won East German national titles in 1972 with the coxed pairs, 1973 with the eights, and with the coxless fours in 1974-75 and 1977-79.

Decker studied sports at the DHfK Leipzig and became a graduated sports teacher at the sports school Werdau. In 1986, he was named director of the school. After re-unification, he became president of the Regional Sports Federation at Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), and then president of the newly founded Regional Sports Federation of Saxony from 1990-98. In this position he was responsible for the research institute Leipzig (later IAT Leipzig). From 1992-94 he was also one of the vice-presidents of the German Sports Federation. He then became CEO of sports park Rabenberg.