Hans Gunther Winkler. He was a German horseman. With seven Olympic medals, five of them gold , he managed to become the most successful jumper of all time in the history of the Games.
Biographical data
He was born in Barmen , Germany , in the year 1926 . In the 1950s , Winkler established an undisputed authority on the sport of horsemanship . Individual world champion in show jumping in 1954 and 1955 and European champion in 1957 , the splendor of his career would come with his six participations in Olympic competition. In 1956 , the Games were held in Melbourne , but Australian law forced the equestrian events to be moved to the Swedish city of Stockholm, where Winkler would obtain his first two gold medals in show jumping: the individual and the team championship as a member of the German team.
From then on, the German riders dominated the riding scene for a decade and, with Winkler at the helm, they won gold again at the 1960 Rome Games and, for the third time in a row, at the Tokyo Olympics four years later. Mexico was the scene of the 1968 Games , where the German team won the bronze medal behind Canada and France , but at the Munich event ( 1972 ) Germany once again climbed to the top of the podium.
Winkler’s extraordinary Olympic career ended in 1976 in Montreal , where he won the silver medal , giving up the gold, on that occasion, to the French team. At the age of 75 and after dedicating his whole life to horse racing, he received the Golden Sport Pyramid , the highest sports award in Germany.
Death
He died in Warendorf , North Germany , in 2018 , at the age of 92.
