Goalie Wieland Schmidt, who was not related to his teammate Dietmar Schmidt, was on the gold medal winning East German team at the 1980 Moskva Olympics, winning the final after a 23-22 overtime victory against the Soviet Union. Wieland Schmidt also competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but the East German team finished a disappointing seventh. He played 276 international matches with the GDR national team, and during the 1970s and 1980s was considered one of the world’s best goalies. In 1974, he won a silver medal at the Worlds and in 1978 helped the team win bronze.
Domestically, Schmidt played with SC Magdeburg and helped them win eight GDR Championships (1977, 1980-85, 1988) and the 1979 and 1981 European Cup of Champions. He was named Handball Player of the Year in 1980, 1981, and 1988. After German re-unification Schmidt moved to VfL Hameln and GWD Minden until 1993. He later turned to coaching with HC Leipzig, and by profession, he became a marketing expert at a bank.
East Germany