Siegrun Siegl

Siegrun Siegl was an East German long jumper and pentathlete. She won the pentathlon gold medal at the 1976 Montréal Olympics and finished fourth in long jump, placing fifth four years later in Moskva in the long jump. The 1976 Olympic competition was the closest international competition ever in women’s multi-events. After four events, 62 points separated the top six places, with Siegl in seventh place, 70 points behind the leader, 1974 European Champion Nadiya Tkachenko. In the final event, 200 meters, Siegl topped the field with 23.09 seconds, almost 4/10ths faster than her teammate Christine Bodner-Laser, the second fastest runner. That moved Siegl and Bodner-Laser into a tie with 4,745 points, but based on the rules for multi-events, Siegl was declared the gold medalist because she had bettered Bodner-Laser in three of the five events, the tie-breaker.

Siegl also finished fourth at the 1974 Europeans in pentathlon, and won the gold medal in long jump at the 1979 European Indoors. In 1976 she set a world long jump record with 6.99. Domestically she won East German titles in pentathlon in 1975 (indoors in 1974), and in long jump in 1980 (indoors in 1979). She married track cyclist and non-Olympian Jürgen Siegl in 1975 and studied sports at a trade school in Erfurt. After German reunification Sigrun Siegl owned a photographic shop.

Personal Bests: LJ – 6.99 (1976); Pen – 4813 (1976).