Lilli Schwarzkopf

Lilli Schwarzkopf is a German heptathlete born on 28 August 1983 in Novopokrovka in the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic. Her first major global competition was the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, where she finished 13th, and she won the bronze medal at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. She was fifth at the 2007 World Championships and eighth at the 2008 Summer Olympics, did not finish the heptathlon at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, and skipped the 2010 European Championships to focus on her studies before returning to place sixth at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she won the silver medal in the heptathlon; she was briefly disqualified after the 800 metres for breaking lane, but this proved to be a mistake because a rival in the neighbouring lane had done so, and she was reinstated.