East German middleweight judoka Detlef Ultsch participated at the 1976 Montréal Olympics with limited success, but won a bronze medal four years later at Moskva. In 1979, Ultsch became the first German World Champion in judo. He repeated this triumph in 1983 and won a bronze in 1981. He also won a silver at the 1978 Europeans and bronze medals in 1976-77, 1979-80, and 1982-83. Domestically, he won six national titles.
Ultsch then turned to coaching. Since 1980 he was a member of the national coaching team in East Germany, and after re-unification, he was chief youth coach in Germany. In 2009 he became chief national coach until 2016, while in 2017 he became chief coach of the federal police. His son Christian also became a judoka.
East Germany