Michael Keck

Partnering Michael Helber, German badminton player Michael Keck reached the last 16 in the men’s doubles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but lost to the Russians Andrey Antropov and Nikolay Zuyev. Partnering Karen Stechmann, Keck lost in the first round of the mixed event. Four years later Keck partnered Nicol Pitro, again in the mixed event, but they were eliminated in the second round.

Keck played with SV Fortuna Regensburg, and SSV Heiligenwald domestically. He helped Regensburg win the German Team Championships in 1990 and Heiligenwald in 1996. He also won the national men’s doubles titles in 1993 with the non-Olympian Uwe Ossenbrink, and again in 1995 and 1996 with Helber. With Stechman, he also won the German mixed doubles title between 1993-95, and with the non-Olympian Anne-Katrin Seid, in 1991.

Keck, whose brother Michael died in 1996 from cancer at the age of only 29 years, also won several international tournaments, mostly in the mixed events, but he did win the men’s singles title at the 1990 Swiss Open. In 1996, he won a bronze medal at the European Championships with Stechmann in the mixed, and a silver in 1998 with Dutch girl Erica van den Heuvel. Later, Keck became Germany’s chief national coach.