Stephane Oliver FRANKE

French-born long-distance runner Stéphane Franke moved to Germany at the age of 5 years. He failed to make it out of 10K qualifying at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics but reached the finals of the 5K and 10K at Atlanta. He ran the 10,000 at the World Championships in 1991, 1993, and 1995, placing 12th, 4th, and 7th respectively, while in 1997 he finished 31st in the World Championship marathon. His greatest moments were in the European Championships, when he won the 10K bronze medal in 1994 and 1998, placing 10th in the 5,000 metres in 1994. Domestically Franke won four national titles.

After his active career Franke became a coach, a sports commentator for Eurosports and an author on the themes of long-distance running and walking. He was considered one of the sharpest critics of his teammate Dieter Baumann in his doping scandal. In November 2004 Franke published the cookbook Fitness à la Carte, together with the TV cook Frank Rosin. The book gave a lot of nutrition tips including 30 user-friendly, season-structured, fitness recipes from the master cook. Between 2000 and 2002 Franke became meeting director of the Berlin ISTAF Meet. He was married to long-distance runner and non-Olympian Jana Dahms.

Personal Bests: 5000 – 13:03.76 (1995); 10000 – 27:48.88 (1995).