Anecdotes of sports medicine - Klaus Steinbach
As mentioned earlier, at the Limburg Congres for Sports Medicine I liked to invite speakers who were not only experts in the field of sports medicine, but who also could present excellent sports performances.
One of them was Klaus Steinbach (1953-), the German swimmer was the first to complete 100m freestyle under 50 seconds in short course.
He won the silver medal 200m freestyle at the 1974 European Championship in Vienna and he also won five European titles in different relay races.
During the 1972 Olympics in Munich Steinbach swam four finals, highlight was the silver medal with the 4 x 200m freestyle relay team, where 18-year-old Steinbach was the final swimmer.
Four years later in Montréal, he qualified again for four finals with a bronze medal 4 x 100m medley. He finished fourth in 100m freestyle, fifth in 200m freestyle and with the German team fourth in 4 x 200m freestyle .
At the 1975 World Championship in Cali he won the gold medal with the German relay team 4 x 200m freestyle.
When he ended his sports carriere in 1980, Steinbach was proud to present 25 German titles with 64 German and nine European records.
In 1986 he graduated from the Universität des Saarlandes with the dissertation 'Untersuchungen zur Wertigkeit der Fahrradergometrie für die Leistungsdiagnostik und Trainingssteuerung im Schwimmsport' (Studies on the value of bicycle ergometry for performance diagnostics and training control in swimming).
From 1992 he worked as an Orthopedic Surgeon and Rehabilitation physician in the Hochwald Kliniken of Weiskirchen, where he became Medical Director in 1997.
As a sports physician, he guided the German national volleyball teams and the German Olympic team in Atlanta.
From 1981 he was a member of the German Olympic Committee, of which he became chairman in 2002.
In 2003 he became a member of the medical committee of the IOC.
In 2015 he was appointed Chief Medical Officer of the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In 1981 he received the Fair Play prize from UNESCO, in 2017 the Saarländische Verdienstorden and in 2018 'Die Goldene Sportpyramide'
His daughter Laura (1985-) played with the German handball team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
