Andrea Pinske is dead. The former swimming Olympic champion died at the age of 57 years. This was announced by the Olympic Training Center Berlin (OSP) on its website. There Pinske had been working as a physiotherapist for almost four decades. Official information on the cause of death did not exist at first.
"With her experience and human values, she understood the thoughts and emotions of competitive athletes and had a close connection to the athletes," wrote the OSP Berlin in his obituary to the former competitive swimmer. "With their work and their deep human values, Polli has shaped us all, and that remains with us even after the painful loss."
Pinske had won at the Olympic Games in 1976 in Montreal, then still under the name pollack, twice gold over 200 m butterfly and with the 4x100 -m-layer scale of the former GDR. Four years later she repeated in Moscow the Olympic triumph with the squadron.
After her active time Pinske had testified in 1998 in the first major trial to the systematic doping in East German sport as a witness. The then 37-year-old said in court that she regularly swallowed various tablets and also received injections.
But discussions have never existed. "It was just vitamins, and they were just part of the training," Pinske said in the process. In her master discipline she set 1978 world records over 100 and 200 meters.