Heide Rosendahl

Heidemarie Ecker-Rosendahl (German pronunciation: [ˈhaɪdə ˈʔɛkɐ ˈʁoːzn̩ˌdaːl] ^ⓘ; née Rosendahl; born 14 February 1947) is a retired German athlete who competed mainly in the pentathlon and long jump. On 3 September 1970, at the 1970 Summer Universiade in Turin, she set a world record in the long jump at 6.84 m^[3] that stood for almost six years.

She won the long jump gold medal in the 1972 Munich Olympics with a leap of 6.78 m, one centimetre ahead of Diana Yorgova of Bulgaria. Two days later in a thrilling pentathlon, she finished second to Mary Peters of Great Britain.^[2]

After the three events on the first day Rosendahl was in the fifth place, 301 points behind Peters. On the second day, she jumped 6.83 m in the long jump (one cm short of the record) and ran the 200 m in 22.96 seconds. She finished with 4791 points, 16 points better than Burglinde Pollak's world record. She would have set a new world mark had not Peters finished the 200 m in 24.08 to better Rosendahl by a slender 10 points. To further prove her versatility, Rosendahl helped the West German 4 × 100 m team with Christiane Krause, Ingrid Mickler-Becker and Annegret Richter to the gold medal and a world record.

In 1970 and 1972 Rosendahl was chosen as the German Sportswoman of the Year. She had a degree in physical education and worked as athletics coach at TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen (1976–1990) and Deutsche Leichtathletik-Verband (1993–2001). She is married to John Ecker, an American basketball player who won the 1969, 1970 and 1971 NCAA Championships as a member of the UCLA Bruins. Their son, Danny Ecker, was a world-class pole vaulter. Rosendahl's father, Heinz Rosendahl, was the German champion in the discus throw in 1948, 1951 and 1953.^[2]

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