Wolfgang THÜNE

Wolfgang Thüne was an East German gymnast who won three team bronze medals, respectively at the 1972 München Olympic Games, and the World Championships of 1970, in Ljubljana, and 1974 in Varna. Individually he finished ninth in the all-round competition at München, but failed to reach the apparatus finals. Domestically, he won the East German national individual all-around titles in 1973 and 1974, and also won six apparatus titles.

Thüne enjoyed his finest moments on the horizontal bar, winning the silver medal at the 1974 Worlds and the bronze at the 1973 Europeans. During the 1975 European Championships in Bern, he fled to the West with the help of West German gymnast Eberhard Gienger, who transported him in his private car across the border from Switzerland to West Germany. Thüne then earned two more national titles (West German) in 1977. After his active career, he worked as a gymnastics coach at Bayer 04 Leverkusen.