Brazilian-born German tennis player Marc-Kevin Goellner participated in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. He was eliminated in the first round of the men’s singles but surprisingly won the bronze medal with David Prinosil in the men’s doubles, beating the Dutch pair Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis in the third-place match. As a result Goellner and Prinosil were awarded the Silver Bay Leaf, Germany’s highest sports award.
The son of a German diplomat, Goellner was born in Brazil and moved to Germany at the age of 16. He had his best year in 1993 when he won his only ATP tournament, at Nice. Also in 1993, he reached the doubles final at the French Open with Prinosil, and won the Davis Cup with Germany. His highest rankings were #26 (1994) in the singles, and #25 (1998) in the doubles. In 2004, he founded a tennis academy at Köln with his former coach Andreas Maurer.
Germany