Petra THÜMER

Long-distance freestyle swimmer Petra Thümer twice triumphed over the American Shirley Babashoff at the 1976 Montréal Olympics in the 400 and 800 metres. Babashoff later tried to get these results withdrawn several times, but without success. Thümer also won three gold medals at the 1977 Jönköping Europeans in the 200, 400, and 800 freestyles. She won East German national titles in the 400 metres in 1977 and 1978, and in the 800 metres from 1976-78. Thümer set five individual world records, two in the 400 freestyle and three in the 800 free.

Thümer later married cross-country skier Alf-Gerd Deckert and then her teammate Klaus Katzur, but both marriages ended in divorce. In 1987 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. After German re-unification, former East German officials admitted to administering doping to nearly all their swimmers, including Thümer. By profession, she became a photographer.