Fritz Briel

West German flatwater canoeist Fritz Briel won four World Championship medals. At Praha in 1958 he won gold in the K1 1,000 m and K1 4×500 m relay, at Jajce in 1963 he won a third gold in the K1 10,000 m, and finally in 1966 he won a bronze in the K1 10,000 m in East Germany. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics he won the silver medal with his partner Theo Kleine in the K2 10,000 m. Therefore, both were awarded the Silver Bay Leaf by president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Theodor Heuss.

At the 1957 European Championships he won four medals: three golds in the K1 1,000 m, K1 10,000 m, and the K2 1,000 m, with non-Olympian Heinz Ackers, and a bronze in the K4 1,000 m. In 1961 he added two more golds in the K1 10,000 m and 4x500m relay. In 1963 he won his last European gold, again in the K1 10,000 m. In addition Briel also won 22 West German national titles (K1 1,000: 1957-61, 1963, 1965; K1 10,000: 1955, 1957-64, 1966; K2 1,000: 1957-58, K4 10,000: 1954; 4x500 relay: 1963, Team K1: 1957).

Briel trained as a plumber and later managed a petrol station in Hilden for almost ten years. He the retrained as a massage therapist and owned a bathing house in Eller in Düsseldorf.