Heide Rosendahl

Biography She won the long jump gold medal in the 1972 Summer Olympics with a leap of 6.78 m, one centimetre ahead of Diana Yorgova of Bulgaria. Two days later in a thrilling pentathlon, she finished second to Mary Peters of Great Britain.

After the three events on the first day Rosendahl was in the fifth place, 301 points behind Peters. On the second day, she jumped 6.83 m in the long jump (one cm short of the record) and ran the 200 m in 22.96 seconds. She finished with 4791 points, 16 points better than Burglinde Pollak's world record. She would have set a new world mark had not Peters finished the 200 m in 24.08 to better Rosendahl by a slender 10 points. To further prove her versatility, Rosendahl helped the West German 4 × 100 m team with Christiane Krause, Ingrid Mickler-Becker and Annegret Richter to the gold medal and a world record.

In 1970 and 1972 Rosendahl was chosen as the German Sportswoman of the Year. She had a degree in physical education and worked as athletics coach at TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen (1976–1990) and Deutsche Leichtathletik-Verband (1993–2001). She is married to John Ecker, an American basketball player who won the 1969, 1970 and 1971 NCAA Championships as a member of the UCLA Bruins. Their son, Danny Ecker, was a world-class pole vaulter. Rosendahl's father, Heinz Rosendahl, was the German champion in the discus throw in 1948, 1951 and 1953.