Axel Lesser

Axel Lesser participated in three consecutive Winter Olympics from 1968-76 with limited success. In 1976, the GDR relay team had to give up because Lesser collided on the second leg with an unknown person and was injured. The crew refused to protest because they did not know who to protest against, nor did anybody witness the incident. Lesser had to retire after the Olympics due to his injuries.

Almost 30 years later after re-unification, Lesser talked about the person involved in the incident as a female Russian supporter of the Soviet relay team. But this theory has never been proved. He could not talk about this earlier fact due to the political situation during the Cold War. In 1970 he won a silver medal with the relay team at the World Championships. He won three East German national titles, in the 50 km in 1968, and with the relay in 1970 and 1973. His grandson Erik Lesser became a world class biathlete in the 2010s.