Rower Ramona Balthasar could not participate due to the Soviet-led boycott at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. However, she was a member of the East German coxed eights at the 1988 Seoul Games, winning the gold medal. At World Championships, Balthasar won the quadruple sculls gold medal in 1985, and with the eights, won silver in 1989 and bronze in 1990.
Balthasar won three national titles with the eights from 1988-90. She later married former track athlete, but non-Olympian, Detlef Franz and the family moved to Erkelenz, where both were active as athlete coaches. Balthasar abandoned her medicine studies after re-unification, and became a nurse, and also raised three children.
East Germany