Thomas Schönlebe
Schönlebe in 1986
Personal information
Born6 August 1965 (1965-08-06) (age 58)
Frauenstein, East Germany
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight74 kg (163 lb)
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing East Germany East Germany
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1987 Rome 400 m
World Indoor Games
Gold medal – first place1985 Paris400 m
European Championships
Silver medal – second place1986 Stuttgart400 m
Silver medal – second place1990 Split400 m
Bronze medal – third place1990 Split4 × 400 m relay
European Indoor Championships
Gold medal – first place 1986 Madrid400 m
Representing  Germany
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1993 Stuttgart 4 × 400 m relay
World Indoor Championships
Gold medal – first place1991 Seville4 × 400 m relay

Thomas Schönlebe (born 6 August 1965) is a retired East German track and field athlete who competed in the 400 metres. He won the gold medal at the 1987 World Championships. In that race, he set a European record of 44.33 seconds which stood for 35 years before it was broken by Matthew Hudson-Smith in August 2023.

A year earlier, Schönlebe had finished second at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart behind Roger Black. One of his last achievements was the third place at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart with the (now unified) German 4 × 400 m relay team.

Schönlebe achieved three world indoor records during his career[1]

[2]
  • 45.41 s in the 400 m on 9 February 1986;
  • 45.05 s in 400 m on 5 February 1988;
  • 3:03.05 in 4x400 m relay as a member of a German team on 10 March 1991.

Note: Schönlebe's first record has the distinction of being the inaugural record at the distance when the IAAF established the category of world indoor records on 1 January 1987.

Schönlebe later became chief executive officer of his hometown club, LAC Erdgas Chemnitz[3]

In 1994, he was awarded the Rudolf Harbig Memorial Award.

International competitions

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing  East Germany
1983 European Junior Championships Schwechat, Austria 1st 400 m 45.64
1st 4 × 400 m 3:04.95
European Cup London, UK 2nd 400 m 45.70
1985 World Indoor Games Paris, France 1st 400 m 45.60
European Cup Moscow, Soviet Union 1st 400 m 44.96
World Cup Canberra, Australia 2nd 400 m 44.72
2nd 4 × 400 m 3:00.82
1986 European Indoor Championships Madrid, Spain 1st 400 m 46.98
European Championships Stuttgart, Germany 2nd 400 m 44.63
6th 4 × 400 m 3:04.87
1987 World Championships Rome, Italy 1st 400 m 44.33
heats 4 × 400 m DNF
European Cup Prague, Czechoslovakia 1st 400 m 44.96
1st 4 × 400 m 3:00.80
1988 European Indoor Championships Budapest, Hungary 4th (sf) 400 m 46.86
Olympic Games Seoul, South Korea 9th (sf) 400 m 44.90
4th 4 × 400 m 3:01.13
1989 World Cup Barcelona, Spain 5th 4 × 400 m 3:02.73
1990 European Championships Split, Yugoslavia 2nd 400 m 45.13
3rd 4 × 400 m 3:01.51
Representing  Germany
1991 World Indoor Championships Seville, Spain 1st 4 × 400 m 3:03.05
1992 Olympic Games Barcelona, Spain 15th (qf) 400 m 45.46
heats 4 × 400 m DNF
1993 World Championships Stuttgart, Germany 3rd 4 × 400 m 2:59.99
(#) Indicates overall position in quarterfinal (qf) or semifinal (sf) round

Note: Schönlebe qualified for the 1988 European Indoor final but withdrew.

World rankings

Schonlebe was ranked among the best in the world at the 400 m sprint events in the period 1983–87 (including world number one in 1987), according to the votes of the experts of Track and Field News.[4]

400 meters
Year World rank
1983 8th
1984 -
1985 2nd
1986 10th
1987 1st

See also

References


  1. ↑ Progression of IAAF World Records 2011 Edition, Editor Imre Matrahazi, IAAF Athletics, p. 400 and p. 406.
  2. ↑ "WORLD RECORD PROGRESSION OF 400 METRES". IAAF. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  3. ↑ "Thomas Schonlebe". Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  4. ↑ "MEN'S WORLD 400 RANKINGS BY ATHLETE 1947–2018". Track and Field News.
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