Mikhail LINGE

Mikhail Linge took up athletics in 1972 and was selected for the Soviet national team after winning a silver medal in the 4x400 relay at the 1977 European Junior Championships. As a senior, Linge competed at only one major international tournament, the 1980 Olympic Games, where he won a gold medal in the 4x400 metre relay. At the Soviet Championships Linge won only one medal, gold in the 1979 4x400 relay.

Linge’s sports career came to an abrupt end on 11 March 1982, when a car he was driving hit a bus head-on. After his forced retirement from sports Linge was unable to find a job and eventually fell in with a bad element. In the mid-1980s Linge was sentenced to 8½ years in prison on smuggling charges and later one year was added to his sentence after a failed escape attempt. Linge was paroled from prison for good behavior in 1990, but after a failed attempt to establish his own construction firm, again turned to crime. Linge’s lifeless body was found on the morning of 4 February 1994 at the stairwell of his Moskva apartment building. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, but his killers were never found.

Personal Best: 400 – 45.4 (1980).