Roland Gehrke

Roland Gehrke, a super-heavyweight freestyle wrestler, twice finished an unfortunate fourth at the Olympic Games, at Montréal in 1976 and Moskva in 1980. He was more successful at World Championships, winning the gold medal in 1981 and silver medals in 1975 and 1979. He also won silver medals at the 1976, 1979 and 1983 Europeans, and added a bronze in 1981.

At the East German nationals, Gehrke won the title from 1974-84 consecutively. During his time in the former GDR, and later in re-unified Germany, he worked with the criminal investigation department, but was released in 1996, after it became known that he also worked with the Ministry of State Security (Stasi). He turned to wrestling coaching, and worked with his home club Luckenwalder SC, and later coached in Austria until 2008, when he returned to Berlin.