Hans-Joachim Walde

Dr. med. Hans-Joachim Walde was a West German decathlon star who competed in three Olympic Games, medaled twice and was world ranked on five occasions. A product of legendary coach Friedel Schirmer, Walde won the bronze medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games behind teammate Willi Holdorf. He was 1967 Universiade champion, then, representing “West” Germany he captured the silver medal at the 1968 Olympic Games behind Bill Toomey. In 1969 he was nominated for the European Championships but due to the West German boycott could not start. He failed to finish at the 1972 Munich Games. He competed for the club USC Mainz and his PR score was 8,122 (1962 tables) and 8,094 (1985 tables). Domestically Walde won national decathlon titles in 1964 and 1969, and was runner-up in 1968 and 1971. His only world record was set in 1970 in the heptathlon. For his sports achievements he was awarded the Silver Bay Leaf in 1965, and for several years he was the athlete’s speaker of the German National Team. His son Hendrik also became a successful national-level decathlete.

At the age of three, Walde fled with his mother from Dresden where they had survived the disastrous bombing raid of the allied troops. He later became an orthopaedic surgeon. In his medical studies he started as a trauma surgeon but later switched to sports medicine, specializing in shoulder surgery, and was a member of the German Shoulder and Elbow Society (DVSW). Walde became the director of sports medicine at Northwest Hospital in Frisian Sanderbusch, Lower Saxony.

Personal Best: Dec – 8094 (1968).