Maxi Gnauck

Who is Maxi Gnauck?

Maxi Gnauck is a retired artistic gymnast. With a total of 27 medals at the Olympic Games, world championships, world cups, and European championships she is considered one of the most successful woman gymnast that Germany has ever produced. In 1980 she was selected East German Sportspersonality of the Year.

Her parents were expecting a boy and they planned to name him Max so, when the baby turned out to be a girl, they simply added an i, creating an uncommon name for Germany. When Maxi was five, Her mother took her to a gymnastics centre in their area. By eight, Maxi had won her first medals at the Kreisspartakiade. When she was nine she changed her club to SC Dynamo Berlin, where she was coached by Jurgen Heritz. Considered one of the best uneven bars competitors of her time, Maxi was also a super tumbler. She was one of the first female gymnasts to perform a triple twist on floor.

In April 1986, Maxi officially announced her retirement and began a four-year course in sports coaching at the University of Leipzig. In 1988 she was severely injured while sliding down a waterslide while working as an aid at a children's summer camp by the Baltic Sea. She broke her C5 vertebra and was nearly paralyzed. Three vertebrae were later reinforced with a metal plate.