Wolfgang Nordwig is a former East Germanpole vaulter. He competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics and won a bronze and a gold medal, respectively, clearing 5.50 m in 1972.
Athletic career
Nordwig won a bronze in the pole vault at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. He was a member of the East German team, the first time East and WestGermany had sent separate teams to the Olympics. In the contest, Nordwig, the AmericanBob Seagren and the West-German Claus Schiprowski all cleared at 5.40 m, Seagren and Schiprowski on their second attempts and Nordwig on his third. All missed at 5.45 m. Seagren was the gold medal winner because he had had fewer misses at lower heights than Schiprowski. Nordwig was Olympic champion at the pole vault at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Nordwig's keenest rivals for the title the Americans Bob Seagren, Steve Smith and Jan Johnson and the Swede Kjell Isaksson were amongst those vaulters banned by the world governing body the IAAF from competing with the lighter poles they had been using all season. An initial ban in July had been reversed on 27 August, but on the eve of the competition, 30 August, the IAAF reimposed their ban claiming the poles were new equipment and therefore invalid. Seagren, the defending champion, finished second; Johnson third; and Smith and Isaksson did not even qualify for the final. Nordwig had never preferred the new pole so was unaffected. In the competition itself, Johnson was eliminated at 5.40 m with Nordwig clearing on his second attempt and Seagren on his third. Nordwig then cleared 5.45 m with Seagren unable to match him. Nordwig then underlined his triumph by clearing 5.50 m for a new Olympic record and his personal best. Nordwig won five European titles: three outdoors and two indoors. Domestically he won the East German title outdoors in 1965-72 and indoors in 1964-66, and 1969-72. During his career he set two world records. The first occasion was on 17 June 1970 in Berlin, Germany when he cleared. The second was on 3 September 1970 in Turin, Italy, when he broke his own world record with a jump of. In 1972 he became East German Sportsman of the Year and retired from competitions.
World rankings
Nordwig was voted by the experts at Track and Field News to be ranked among the best in the world in the pole vault in the period from 1965 to 1972.
