Monika Pflug

Medal record
Competitor for  West Germany
Women's speed skating
Olympic Games
Gold	1972 Sapporo	1,000 m
World Championships
Gold	1972 Eskilstuna	Allround
Bronze	1973 Oslo	Allround
Bronze	1974 Innsbruck	Allround
Bronze	1982 Alkmaar	Allround

Monika Pflug (born 1 March 1954), also known as Monika Holzner-Pflug and Monika Gawenus-Pflug, is a former speed skater from Germany. She was born in Munich and competed for West Germany.

Pflug's talent for speed skating was discovered in 1968 and the very next year, she already became Junior National Champion. In 1970, she set a national record on the 1,000 m and in 1971, she became National Sprint Champion. The next year, 1972, was her best year; she first became National Allround Champion, then, one month later, she won gold on the 1,000 m at the 1972 Winter Olympics of Sapporo, and two weeks after that, she became World Sprint Champion.

After getting married, Plug started competing as Monika Holzner-Pflug in the 1974-1975 season. The marriage was short-lived, however, and after her divorce she competed as Monika Pflug again. In 1984, Pflug got married to fellow speed skater Fritz Gawenus, a multiple National Champion. From then on, she competed as Monika Gawenus-Pflug.

Pflug would compete in a total of five Winter Olympics between 1972 and 1988, but did not win any more Olympic medals. At the World Sprint Championships, she won three more medals, all bronze, in 1973, 1974, and 1982. She interrupted her speed skating career for a while to become a mother. Pflug ended her speed skating career abruptly in 1988 after a new personal and national record on the 500m in an otherwise very disappointing season. By that time, she had gathered 16 national titles and had skated a national record 65 times.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Pflug at important championships she participated in, listing the years in which she won each:

Championships	Gold medal	Silver medal	Bronze medal
Winter Olympics	1972 (1,000 m)	–	–
World Allround	–	–	–
World Sprint	1972	–	1973 1974 1982
World Cup	–	–	–
European Allround	–	–	–
West German Allround	1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1981 1982	–	–
West German Sprint	1975 1979 1981 1982 1983 1984 1986 1987	–	–

World records

Over the course of her career, Pflug skated one world record:

Event	Result	Date	Venue
Sprint combination	183.085	27 February 1972	Eskilstuna

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the column WR lists the official world records on the dates that Pflug skated her personal records.

Event	Result	Date	Venue	WR
500 m	40.53	22 February 1988	Calgary	39.39
1,000 m	1:23.47	30 December 1983	Inzell	1:19.31
1,500 m	2:11.26	6 March 1986	Inzell	2:03.34
3,000 m	4:54.49	26 February 1981	Inzell	4:31.00
Mini combination	178.959	26 February 1981	Inzell	171.149
Sprint combination	166.575	23 February 1986	Karuizawa	161.120

References

• Monika Pflug at SkateResults.com
• Monika Pflug from Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft e.V. (the German Skating Association)
• Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database
• Historical World Records from the International Skating Union

Persondata
Name	Pflug, Monika
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 March 1954
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death