Gerd BONK

Gerd Bonk was one of the top super-heavyweight lifters of the 1970s, winning multiple medals at international championships, but he was unlucky in competing most of his career against Vasily Alekseyev, which prevented him from winning many major titles. He did win the 1976 and 1979 European title. He was runner-up at the 1975 and 1976 Worlds, and won bronzes in 1972, 1978, and 1979. At the European Championships, Bonk added silvers in 1974-75, and bronzes in 1972, 1978, and 1980. He set three unlimited world records from 1975-76 – two in the clean & jerk and one in the total.

At the East German Championships he won the 1971, 1973-77 and 1979 titles, adding another 15 titles in the single disciplines. He had won the bronze medal at the 1972 München Games and the silver medal at the 1976 Montréal ones. Although Gerd Bonk won the bronze medal at the 1980 European Championships, he was not nominated for the Games in Moscow, and then retired back to his home town Limbach / Vogtland. The educated motorcar mechanic and industrial master for motorcars then became an early-retired pensioner and is considered one of the most famous victims of the GDR doping practice in competitive sports. In 2002 he was awarded the Georg von Opel Award for Silent Winners in the category "Special Warriors." In September 2013 he fell into a coma due to multiple organ failure and died in October 2014.