fullname country event birth_place height sport birth_date article_title name
nils schumann germany 800 metres bad frankenhausen , east germany 1.92 m on athletics 20 may 1978 nils schumann
 nils schumann
nils schumann

nils schumann -lrb- born 20 may 1978 -rrb- is a former german athlete , winner of the 800 m at the 2000 summer olympics , who retired in 2009 .
for most of the five years before his retirement he had featured sparingly at an international level due to injuries .
schumann , born in bad frankenhausen , began his career as a footballer in 1984 before switching to athletics .
he won a gold medal over 800 m at the 1998 european athletics indoor championships in halle .
at the european championships in budapest in the same year , he won the title in a close finish .
a few weeks later he also won the 800 m race at the world cup in johannesburg .
he also made the final of the 1999 world athletics championships , but placed 8th and last .
he had a quiet 2000 season , until the olympics started in sydney .
schumann cruised through the preliminaries , easily qualifying for the final .
in the final , schumann set in his final sprint at the last straight , taking the lead with just 50 m to go .
favourite wilson kipketer of denmark gained in the closing meters , but was unable to prevent a surprise victory by the german runner .
in the following year , schumann finished in fifth place at the 2001 world championships in athletics in edmonton .
schumann , who also won a bronze medal at the 2002 european championships , was unable to defend his olympic title at the 2004 summer olympics in athens , suffering from injury throughout the 2004 season .
