Helmut Recknagel

Helmut Recknagel is an East German former ski jumper, born on 20 March 1937 in Steinbach-Hallenberg, who was active in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He won the Olympic gold medal in ski jumping at the 1960 Winter Olympics and took the Holmenkollen ski jumping competition twice, in 1957 and 1960, becoming the first competitor from outside Scandinavia to win that traditional event. At the Nordic World Ski Championships he won a bronze in 1958 and a gold and a bronze in 1962. He was also the first athlete to win the Four Hills Tournament three times. Originally a tool and die maker, he later studied veterinary medicine, earned a doctorate in 1973 and worked as a veterinarian and hygiene controller until the end of East Germany.