Karin Büttner-Janz

Karin Büttner-Janz, born Karin Janz on 17 February 1952, is a German medical doctor and former artistic gymnast who won world and Olympic gold medals for East Germany. She won silver on the uneven bars and bronze with the team at the 1968 Olympics, beat Ludmilla Tourischeva on the bars for gold at the 1970 world championships, and at the 1972 Munich Olympics won the uneven bars ahead of Olga Korbut in a controversial finish in which the audience protested her score for ten minutes. In Munich she also took gold on vault, silver in the all-around behind Tourischeva, team silver and balance beam bronze, making her the most successful German athlete of those Games. An uneven bars element, the Janz Salto, carries her name. After competing she trained as an orthopaedic physician, co-developed the Charité artificial spinal disc, and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2003.