General · EdgepediaOctober 21, 20262 min read

Liane Weigelt Buhr

Liane Weigelt Buhr (born 1956 in Pritzwalk, Brandenburg) is a German former rowing coxswain who won Olympic gold medals in the women's coxed quadruple sculls for East Germany at both the 1976 Montréal Games, when women's rowing first appeared on the Olympic program, and the 1980 Moskva Games, competing under her married name Buhr.¹ She also won three World Championship titles in the same boat class, in 1974, 1975, and 1979.¹

Key fact	Detail
Born	1956 in Pritzwalk, Brandenburg¹
Olympic medals	2 gold, coxed quadruple sculls, Montréal 1976 and Moskva 1980¹
World titles	1974, 1975, and 1979, coxed quadruple sculls¹
1980 final	East Germany won in 3:15.32, 0.41 seconds ahead of the Soviet Union²
Later career	Studied medicine 1975–79; ran her own practice in Fichtenwalde¹

Olympic career

At the 1976 Montréal Games, the first at which women's rowing was held, the East German coxed quadruple sculls crew with Weigelt as cox won the gold medal.¹ In the opening round on 19 July 1976 the crew set an Olympic record of 3:08.49 over the 1,000 m course in its heat.¹

She returned to the national crew for the 1979 World Championships at Bled, where the East German boat won in 3:06.75.³

At the 1980 Moskva Games, three members of the 1976 crew, Jutta Lau, Roswietha Zobelt, and Weigelt-Buhr, were defending champions and heavy favorites to retain the title.² East Germany finished third in its opening heat behind Bulgaria and the Soviet Union, then won the repêchage (second-chance heat offering losers another route to the final) to reach the final.² In the final on 26 July the East German crew, with Sybille Reinhardt, Jutta Ploch, Jutta Lau, Roswietha Zobelt, and Liane Buhr as cox, won in 3:15.32; the Soviet Union took silver 0.41 seconds later and Bulgaria bronze another 0.37 seconds back, one of the closest rowing finales of the Games.²

World and national titles

Domestically, she won East German national titles in 1975 and 1979.¹

Life outside rowing

Weigelt-Buhr studied medicine between 1975 and 1979 and later ran her own practice in Fichtenwalde, in Brandenburg.¹

Physical measurements

Reference sources disagree on her racing measurements: Olympedia lists 154 cm and 42 kg,¹ while World Rowing's athlete profile lists 150 cm and 45 kg.³ Either way, her listed weight was among the lightest on record for an Olympic champion, consistent with the coxswain's role, where crews historically sought the smallest permissible person to steer.

References

Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026