The German rowing icon Peter-Michael Kolbe is dead. As the German Rowing Association (DRV) confirmed to the sports information service, the Holzminden native died at the age of 70. Kolbe’s five world championship titles in the single sculls are still a record to this day. Germany’s athlete of the year in 1975 became known for his eternal and all-losing duels with the Finn Pertti Karppinen and the GDR rower Thomas Lange for Olympic gold. “I wanted the gold, but I didn’t get it. Nevertheless, my career fills me with pride,” Kolbe once said. In 1981 he received the Silver Laurel Leaf, in 1988 the Federal Cross of Merit, and in 2016 he became the fourth rower to be inducted into the German Sports Hall of Fame.
Rowing icon Peter-Michael Kolbe is dead – Sport
