Kirsten Wenzel

Kirsten Wenzel

Wenzel in 1982
Personal information
Born	(1961-02-27) 27 February 1961 Leipzig, East Germany
Height	150 cm (4 ft 11 in)
Weight	48 kg (106 lb)
Spouse	Rainer Strohbach (div)
Sport
Sport	Rowing
Club	SC DHfK, Leipzig
Medal record Women's rowing Representing East Germany Olympic Games 1980 Moscow Coxed four World Rowing Championships 1978 Karapiro Coxed four 1979 Bled Coxed four 1981 Munich Coxed four 1982 Lucerne Eight 1983 Duisburg Eight

Kirsten Wenzel (later Strohbach, born 27 February 1961) is a rowing cox who represented East Germany.

Rowing career

Wenzel was born in 1961 in Leipzig. She started for SC DHfK Leipzig and won gold at the 1975 Spartakiad in the coxed quad scull. At the 1978 World Rowing Championships on Lake Karapiro in New Zealand, she became world champion with the coxed four team. In the same boat class but with different rowers, she won silver at the 1979 World Rowing Championships at Bled, Yugoslavia.

At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Wenzel won gold with the coxed four. At the 1981 World Rowing Championships in Munich, she won silver with the coxed four. At the 1982 World Rowing Championships on the Rotsee in Switzerland she coxed the women's eight to bronze. She competed at the 1983 World Rowing Championships under her married name Strohbach and won a final bronze medal with the women's eight before she retired.

Private life

On 18 December 1982, Wenzel married Olympic swimmer Rainer Strohbach at the town hall of Pankow. She studied to become a teacher and taught at high schools in Berlin. She later divorced Strohbach.