Carl Kaufmann was a West German

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 former athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.

He competed for the United Team of Germany

United Team of Germany

The Unified Team of Germany , competed in the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Winter and Summer Olympic Games as a united team of athletes from the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic...

 in the 1960 Summer Olympics

1960 Summer Olympics

The 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held from August 25 to September 11, 1960 in Rome, Italy...

 held in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in the 400 metres where he won the silver medal. The finish line picture of Kaufmann's desperate lunge to try to capture the Gold has been shown in many Track and Field publications. He then joined with team mates Joachim Reske

Joachim Reske

Hans-Joachim Reske is a West German former athlete, who mainly competed in the 400 metres....

, Manfred Kinder

Manfred Kinder

Manfred Kinder is a West German former athlete who mainly competed in the 400 metres.He was born in Königsberg....

 and Johannes Kaiser

Johannes Kaiser

Johannes "Jo" Kaiser is a West German former athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres....

 in the 4 x 400 metre relay where they won the silver medal.

Between Sept 15 1959 and September 6, 1960, he set European records

European record progression 400 metres men

The following table shows the European record progression in the men's 400 metres, as ratified by the EAA- Hand Timing : Performance timed over 440 yards- Automatic Timing :...

 in 400 metres four times, reducing the record to 44.9s which remained the record until the 1968 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, 36 athletics events were contested, 24 for men and 12 for women. There were a total number of 1031 participating athletes from 93 countries....

in Mexico City.