Maxi Gnauck

Maxi Gnauck (born 10 October 1964) is a retired artistic gymnast who represented East Germany. 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 gymnasts that Germany has ever produced. In 1980 she was selected East German Sportspersonality of the Year.[1]

Maxi Gnauck
Gnauck in 1983
Personal information
Country represented	East Germany
Born	(1964-10-10) 10 October 1964 Berlin, East Germany
Height	1.48 m (4 ft 10 in)
Weight	33 kg (73 lb)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Years on national team	1977–85 (GDR)
Club	SC Dynamo Berlin
Retired	April 1986
Medal record Olympic Games 1980 Moscow Uneven bars 1980 Moscow All-around 1980 Moscow Team 1980 Moscow Floor exercise World Championships 1979 Ft. Worth Uneven Bars 1981 Moscow Balance Beam 1981 Moscow Uneven Bars 1981 Moscow Vault 1983 Budapest Uneven Bars 1979 Ft. Worth All-Around 1979 Ft. Worth Team 1981 Moscow Team 1983 Budapest Team European Championships 1981 Madrid All-Around 1981 Madrid Floor Exercise 1981 Madrid Uneven Bars 1981 Madrid Balance Beam 1985 Helsinki Uneven Bars 1979 Copenhagen Vault 1981 Madrid Vault 1985 Helsinki All-Around 1979 Copenhagen Uneven Bars Friendship Games 1984 Olomouc Uneven Bars 1984 Olomouc Floor Exercise 1984 Olomouc Team 1984 Olomouc All-Around 1984 Olomouc Vault

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', creating an uncommon name for Germany.[2] When Maxi was five, her mother took her to a gymnastics centre in their area. By age eight, Maxi had won her first medals at the Kreisspartakiade. When she was nine she changed her club to SC Dynamo Berlin, where she was coached by Jurgen Heritz. Considered one of the best uneven bars competitors of all time, Maxi was also an excellent tumbler. She was one of the first female gymnasts to perform a triple twist on floor.[3]

In April 1986, Maxi officially announced her retirement and began a four-year course in sports coaching at the University of Leipzig.[2] In 1988 she was severely injured while sliding down a waterslide while working as an aide at a children's summer camp by the Baltic Sea. She broke her C5 vertebra and was nearly paralysed. Three vertebrae were later reinforced with a metal plate.[3]

Facing a strong competition after the reunification of East Germany and West Germany, she first took temporary coaching positions in South Africa and Great Britain, both for a few months in 1990.[2] From 1993 until 2004 she worked as a full-time coach at the Harksheide Gymnastics Center in Norderstedt near Hamburg. Since 2005 she has worked at the Artistic and Apparatus Gymnastics Center (Kunst- und Gerätturnzentrum) at Liestal in Switzerland.[1] In 2000, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.[4] She is the first German gymnast to be awarded that honour.[1][3]