Sabine John

Born in Döbeln, Bezirk Leipzig, John competed for the sports club SC DHfK Leipzig during her career. As Sabine Mobius, she won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the 1982 European Championships, behind fellow East German Ramona Neubert. Competing under her first married name of Sabine Paetz, she won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the 1983 World Championships, again behind Neubert.

On 6 May 1984, she broke Neubert's world record of 6935 points, with a score of 6946 in Potsdam. This score ranks her second on the German all-time list behind Sabine Braun, and eighth on the world all-time list. She was prevented from competing at the 1984 Olympic Games due to the Soviet-led boycott, but did finish second to Yordanka Donkova in the 100 metres hurdles at the 1984 Friendship Games. She finished fourth at the 1986 Goodwill Games with a score of 6456, in a competition won by Jackie Joyner-Kersee with the world record score of 7148.

Competing under her second married name of Sabine John, she won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul with the second best score of her career, 6897 points. The competition was won with the still-standing 7291 point world record performance of Jackie Joyner-Kersee. In Seoul, John also finished eighth in the long jump final.

John's 100 metres hurdles best of 12.54 seconds, ranks her equal fourth with Kerstin Knabe on the German all-time list, behind Bettine Jahn, Gloria Uibel and Cornelia Oschkenat. Her long jump best of 7.12 metres, ranks her fifth on the German all-time list, behind Heike Drechsler, Malaika Mihambo, Helga Radtke,[1] and Sosthene Moguenara.