Detlef Lewe

Detlef Lewe was a West German sprint canoeist, born in Dortmund on 20 June 1939 and died in Munich on 1 October 2008. He paddled the Canadian singles over 500 and 1000 metres and competed at four Summer Olympics between the early 1960s and 1972, winning a silver medal in the C-1 1000 metres in 1968 and a bronze in the same event in 1972. At the world championships he took four medals, three of them gold: the C-1 1000 metres in 1966 and 1971, the C-1 500 metres in 1971, and a silver in the C-1 1000 metres in 1963. He was chosen to carry the West German flag at the opening ceremony of the 1972 Games in Munich, a home Olympics. After his racing career he trained as a butcher, ran a shop near the Olympic area in Munich, and died there after a brief illness.