East German sailor Dieter Below won a bronze medal at the 1976 Montréal Olympics in the Olympic Yachting Center at Kingston, Ontario in the Soling three-person keelboat. Four years later he finished an unfortunate fourth at the 1980 Olympics in the same class, when the sailing events were held at Tallinn in Estonia. In 1971 he won his first national title in the Dragon class. The same year and again in 1972, he also won silver medals at the Europeans with Michael Zachries. After moving to the Soling class, Below won gold at the 1973 and 1976 Europeans, and bronze in 1974 and 1978.
Below was a shipbuilder and became secretary-general of the East German Sailing Federation until re-unification. Thereafter he was employed by his home club SC Berlin-Grünau. He was also named coordinator for high performance sports at the Berlin Sailing Federation.
East Germany