Sport Swimming Weight 70 kg Height 1.76 m | Role Backstroke swimmer Name Cornelia Sirch Club SC Turbine Erfurt | |
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Born 23 October 1966 (age 57) ( 1966-10-23 ) Erfurt, Germany Olympic medals Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre backstroke Similar People Kathrin Zimmermann, Kristin Otto, Krisztina Egerszegi | ||
Cornelia Sirch (born 23 October 1966 in Erfurt, East Germany) is a former backstroke swimmer. She competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in three events and won two bronze medals in the 100 m and 200 m backstroke and a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m medley relay, in which she swam in a preliminary round. In 1982 she was named Swimming World's European Swimmer of the Year, after winning 200 m backstroke at the World Championships in Guayaguil in a world record time of 2:09.91, becoming the first woman to dip under 2 minutes 10 seconds.
Between 1983 and 1987 she won six gold and two silver medals at European championships. She retired shortly after the 1988 Olympics and later had serious health problems, which she attributed to doping she had to take as part of the East German training system. Her European Swimmer of the Year title was vacated in 2013, due to her participation in the doping program.