Karin Büttner-Janz

Karin Büttner-Janz ( Janz, born 17 February 1952) is a German medical doctor and former gymnast who won World and Olympic gold medals in artistic gymnastics for East Germany. She is co-inventor of the first artificial intervertebral disc, and from 1990 to 2012, she was chief physician of clinics in Berlin, Germany. She has a foundation named Spinefoundation.

Gymnastics career Büttner-Janz began training in gymnastics when she was five. Her first coach was her father, Guido Janz. Büttner-Janz moved to a sports school in Forst when she was 10, where she boarded during the week and visited her parents on weekends; she later said "that was not good at this age". She moved to a training center in Berlin in 1966. She trained under Klaus Helbeck, and her final coach was Jürgen Heritz.

At 14, she became the East German champion. She also won the gold medal on the vault, a silver medal as part of the East German women's gymnastics team, another silver medal in the all-around competition behind Ludmilla Tourischeva and ahead of Tamara Lazakovich, and bronze on the balance beam.

She was the most successful German athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and was afterwards recognized as GDR (German Democratic Republic) Sportswoman of the Year in 1972. After these successes, she announced her intention of ending her competitive career to turn to the study of medicine to become a physician. She developed the device together with her colleague Kurt Schellnack. both sides agreed to a settlement, from which she received the amount of her annual salary and an unusually large settlement of €590,000, which her lawyer suggested was due to the groundless nature of her dismissal. Several of her colleagues resigned from the hospital as well.

In 2005, she became a professor of orthopaedics at the Charité-Unviversitätsmedizin Berlin. From 2008 to 2009 she was president of the Spine Arthroplasty Society (later renamed to International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery). 2003 – inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. 2011 – inducted into the Germany's Sports Hall of Fame

Competition history YearEventTeamAAVTUBBBFX 1965 Druzhba 1966 Druzhba 1967 DTV Cup GDR-ROM Dual Meet GDR-POL Dual Meet GDR-SWE Dual Meet GDR-USSR Dual Meet GDR Club Championships GDR Championships European Championships 4 4 Pre-Olympics 7 1968 DTV Cup GDR-BUL Dual Meet GDR-FRA Dual Meet GDR-SWE Dual Meet GDR Championships 6 Olympic Games 6 4 1969 DTV Cup GDR-SWE Dual Meet GDR-JPN Dual Meet GDR-USSR-ROM Meet GDR Championships European Championships 1970 USSR-GDR Dual Meet GDR Championships World Championships 4 4 1971 Dynamo Spartakiade 1972 Olympic Games 4 Chunichi Cup