Martina Hellmann, n�e Opitz, is a retired German track and field athlete who represented East Germany. She was the Olympic champion in the discus throw at the 1988 Summer Olympics. She also won the World Championship in that event in 1983 and again in 1987. Hellmann was sixteen years old when she began participating in the event. In 1977 she gave the participants' oath at the opening of the East German gymnastics and sport festival. That summer she set the world record for 16-year-olds with a throw of 55.00 meters. Her career was plagued by sickness and injury until 1983 when she became the surprise world champion. She was unable to compete at the 1984 summer Olympic games due to her country's boycott. On 6 September 1988 she threw the discus 78.14 meters, further than anybody had ever thrown it before. The throw came though in an unofficial training tournament in the East German training camp at Kienbaum, therefore the throw was not eligible to be considered a world record. Her personal best throw was 72.92 metres, achieved in August 1987 in Potsdam. 

December 12th, 1960 in Leipzig (Age 63)