Maxi Gnauck
Encyclopedia
Maxi Gnauck is a retired Artistic Gymnast
. With a total of 27 medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups, and European Championships she is considered one of the most successful woman gymnast that Germany has ever produced.
Her parents were expecting a boy and they planned to name him Max so, when the baby turned out to be a girl, they simply added an i
. When Maxi was 5, Her mother took her to a gymnastics centre in their area. By age 8, Maxi had won her first medals at the Kreisspartakiade. When she was 9 she transferred to the Club SC Dynamo Berlin
, where she was coached by Jurgen Heritz. Considered one of the best Uneven Bars workers of her time, Maxi was also a super tumbler. She was one of the first girls to perform a triple twist on Floor.
In April 1986, Maxi officially announced her retirement and began studying to become a coach. During 1988, Maxi was severely injured while sliding down a waterslide while she was working as an aid at a children's summer camp by the Baltic Sea
. Maxi broke her C5 vertebra
and was nearly paralyzed. Three vertebrae were later reinforced with a metal plate.
Since 1993 Maxi has worked as a full-time coach at the Norderstedt Gymnastics Center in Hamburg
. In 2000, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
, She is the first German gymnast to be awarded that honor.
Artistic gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics where gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting . The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique , which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite...
. With a total of 27 medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups, and European Championships she is considered one of the most successful woman gymnast that Germany has ever produced.
Her parents were expecting a boy and they planned to name him Max so, when the baby turned out to be a girl, they simply added an i
I
I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound...
. When Maxi was 5, Her mother took her to a gymnastics centre in their area. By age 8, Maxi had won her first medals at the Kreisspartakiade. When she was 9 she transferred to the Club SC Dynamo Berlin
SC Dynamo Berlin
The Sports Club Dynamo Berlin was an East German sports club that existed from 1954 to 1991. It was a training center for the Sports Club Dynamo .-Sporting spectrum:...
, where she was coached by Jurgen Heritz. Considered one of the best Uneven Bars workers of her time, Maxi was also a super tumbler. She was one of the first girls to perform a triple twist on Floor.
In April 1986, Maxi officially announced her retirement and began studying to become a coach. During 1988, Maxi was severely injured while sliding down a waterslide while she was working as an aid at a children's summer camp by the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
. Maxi broke her C5 vertebra
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
and was nearly paralyzed. Three vertebrae were later reinforced with a metal plate.
Since 1993 Maxi has worked as a full-time coach at the Norderstedt Gymnastics Center in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. In 2000, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, located in Oklahoma City, USA, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring the achievements and contributions of the world's greatest competitors, coaches and authorities in artistic gymnastics....
, She is the first German gymnast to be awarded that honor.
Results
| Year | Competition | Placing(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | East German Children's Spartakiade | 1st All-Around |
| 1977 | East German Juniors Championships | 5th All-Around |
| 1977 | East Germany-Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992... Juniors Dual Meet |
1st Team, 1st All-Around |
| 1978 | Chunichi Cup | 4th All-Around |
| 1978 | DTV Cup | 5th All-Around |
| 1978 | East Germany-Hungary Dual Meet | 1st team, 3rd All-Around |
| 1978 | Junior Friendship Tournament | 2nd Team, 3rd All-Around, 2nd Floor, 4th Bars, 6th Vault |
| 1979 | Cottbus International | 1st All-Around |
| 1979 | European Championships | 2nd Vault, 3rd Bars, 6th All-Around |
| 1979 | East German Championships | 2nd All-Around |
| 1979 | East German Cup | 4th All-Around |
| 1979 | East Germany-Norway-Sweden Tri-Meet | 1st Team, 1st All-Around |
| 1979 | World Championships | 3rd Team, 2nd All-Around, 1st Bars, 4th Floor, 6th Vault |
| 1980 | Cottbus International | 1st All-Around, 1st bars, 1st Beam, 1st Floor |
| 1980 | East German Championships | 4th All-Around |
| 1980 | East Germany-Hungary Dual Meet | 1st Team, 1st All-Around |
| 1980 | Olympic Games 1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament... |
3rd Team, 2nd All-Around, 1st Bars, 3rd Floor, 4th Beam, 6th Vault |
| 1980 | World Cup | 2nd All-Around, 1st Bars, 1st Floor, 6th Vault |
| 1981 | Cottbus International | 1st All-Around, 1st Bars, 1st Floor, 2nd Vault, 2nd Beam |
| 1981 | European Championships | 1st All-Around, 1st Bars, 1st Beam, 1st Floor, 2nd Vault |
| 1981 | East German Championships | 1st All-Around |
| 1981 | East Germany-Norway-Sweden Tri-Meet | 1st All-Around |
| 1981 | World Championships | 1st Vault, 1st Bars, 1st Beam, 3rd Team |
| 1982 | East German Championships | 1st All-Around, 1st Vault, 1st Bars, 1st Floor |
| 1982 | East Germany-Hungary Dual Meet | 1st Team, 1st All-Around |
| 1982 | World Cup | 5th All-Around, 1st Bars, 3rd Floor, 7th Vault |
| 1983 | Chunichi Cup | 4th All-Around, 1st Floor |
| 1983 | Cottbus International | 1st Vault, 1st Floor, 3rd All-Around |
| 1983 | Tokyo Cup | 1st Bars, 1st Floor |
| 1983 | World Championships | 1st Bars, 3rd Team, 4th Vault, 4th Beam, 7th All-Around |
| 1984 | Cottbus International | 1st Vault, 1st Floor, 4th All-Around |
| 1984 | Friendship Games Friendship Games The Friendship Games or Friendship-84 was an international multi-sport event held between 2 July and 16 September 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.... in Olomouc Olomouc Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic... |
1st Bars, 1st Floor, 3rd All-Around, 3rd Vault, 5th Beam |
| 1984 | DTB Cup | 1st All-Around, 1st Bars, 1st Floor, 2nd Vault, 5th Beam |
| 1984 | East German Championships | 1st All-Around, 1st Bars, 1st Floor, 3rd Vault |
| 1985 | Cottbus International | 1st Floor, 2nd All-Around, 2nd Vault |
| 1985 | European Championships | 1st Bars, 2nd All-Around, 4th Vault |