A forgotten legend of German winter sports

Gerhard Grimmer, who died on October 9, 2023, is remembered as a cross-country skiing legend from the former GDR and a figure revered abroad, especially in Norway, perhaps even more than in unified Germany. In his competitive prime he was considered the best Central European cross-country skier and a principal challenger to the dominant Scandinavians.

Grimmer’s name resonates in Norway, where he achieved two of his greatest triumphs on hallowed ground: he won the prestigious 50 km race at Holmenkollen in 1975—the first German to do so—and repeated the feat in 1976. Like Norwegian idols Petter Northug and current superstar Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Grimmer is on the honor roll of Holmenkollen champions. He was also the only German men’s individual cross-country world champion of the 20th century.

Born April 6, 1943 in Katharinaberg in the Sudetenland (now in the Czech Republic), Grimmer developed at the Oberhof training center into a showcase athlete of the GDR system. At the 1974 World Championships in Falun he won two gold medals—4 x 10 km relay and 50 km—and added five more World Championship medals across his career. He collected 17 GDR national titles before retiring in 1977.

Despite his class, Grimmer never won an Olympic medal. He competed at the Winter Games in 1968 (Grenoble), 1972 (Sapporo) and 1976 (Innsbruck). Illness and injuries hampered him, with a fifth place in the Innsbruck 50 km his best Olympic result.

A notorious incident at the 1976 Olympic relay ended East Germany’s medal hopes: before handing off to Grimmer, leading teammate Axel Lesser crashed heavily after colliding with an unidentified woman. The relay did not finish. The collision was never fully clarified; later, Lesser and others suggested the woman may have been a Soviet staffer, though Lesser himself leaned toward an accident rather than a conspiracy. (Lesser is the grandfather of former biathlete Erik Lesser.)

After retiring, Grimmer stayed in the sport. He led ASK Vorwärts Oberhof, served the Thuringian Ski Association—becoming its president in 1991—and from 1991 to 2003 worked as an elite-sport official at the Thuringian state sports federation.

His GDR past later became a burden. Stasi files show he was administered anabolic steroids in 1971 and, after his career, had knowledge of and helped enforce the state doping system. Grimmer always claimed he knew nothing, but criticism mounted. In 1995 he resigned as Thuringian ski chief. Antje Harvey (née Misersky), the 1992 Olympic biathlon champion who faced repression in the GDR because her father refused to dope her, called Grimmer’s prominent post‑reunification role “incredible” in a 1999 interview.

Grimmer spent his later years in Seligenthal near Schmalkalden, Thuringia, where he grew up. Shortly before his 80th birthday, he was diagnosed with cancer and died a few months later. He is survived by his wife and a daughter.