East German rower Uwe Heppner won the gold medal at the 1980 Moskva Olympics with the quadruple sculls. He was the only East German male rower from the 1980 team who competed at Seoul in 1988, when he finished fifth in the double sculls with Uwe Mund. Due to the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games Heppner could not defend his Olympic title. In 1977 and 1978 he won the Youth World Championships in the quadruple sculls, and in 1981 and 1982 he won the Senior Worlds. With Thomas Lange, he added the double sculls world titles in 1983 and 1985.
With new partners Andreas Hajek, and the non-Olympian Uwe Sägling, Heppner won bronze medals at the 1986 and 1987 World Championships. In 1979, he won his only East German national title in the double sculls, with Martin Winter. Heppner studied pedagogics and became a schoolteacher, and rowing coach, at a sports school at Charlottenburg in Berlin.
East Germany