Christian Gille is a German flatwater canoer who has competed since the mid-1990s. A junior world champion in 1993, he won two senior world championship gold medals with Thomas Zereske in the C-2 200 m sprint in 1997 and 1998. They also competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, placing fifth in the C-2 500 m final. In 2002 Gille won the only C-1 world championship medal of his career. He crossed the line in fourth place in the C-1 200 m final in Seville, Spain, but was later awarded the bronze medal after Ukrainian Dmytro Sablin tested positive for cannabis. Of more significance for the future however was the formation that year of a new C-2 partnership with 19-year-old Tomasz Wylenzek. They finished third in the European Championships and seventh in the C-2 500 m in Seville. Two years later they won a surprise gold medal in the C-2 1000m. Gille wore a black armband in memory of his former partner Thomas Zereske who had died earlier that summer. In 2005 Gille and Wylenzek completely dominated the C-2 event. A clean sweep of medals at the European Championships in Pozna?, Poland, in May was followed by two golds at the World Championships in Zagreb. [More at Wikipedia]

January 6th, 1979 in Wolfen (Age 45)