Silke Möller (néeGladisch, born 20 June 1964) is a German
athlete, who in the 1980s competed for
East Germany as one of the best female
sprinters in the world. She was a member of the East German quartet that broke the
world record in the
4 × 100 m relay at the World cup in
Canberra on 6 October 1985. She and teammates
Sabine Rieger,
Marlies Göhr, and
Ingrid Auerswald ran a time of 41.37 seconds, which stood as the world record until 2012. She is the 1987
World champion at both 100 metres and 200 metres.
Biography
Moller was born in
Stralsund,
Bezirk Rostock (present-day
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). During her career she often stood in the shadows of Göhr,
Marita Koch, and
Heike Drechsler. Only in 1987, while still using her maiden name Gladisch, did she come into her own: at the track and field world championship of 1987 she won two titles – in the
100 m sprint and the
200 m sprint, as well as second place with the 4 × 100 m relay team. With these results she was chosen as the East German sportswoman of the year.
Möller's 200m final performance at Rome in 1987 was exceptionally fast, she stopped the clock at 21.74 seconds. She had won the race by several meters and defeated a world class field including
Florence Griffith and
Merlene Ottey. Her time of 21.74 seconds was only just outside the then world record of 21.71 held by Marita Koch and Heike Drechsler.
At the
1988 Summer Olympics in
Seoul she won the
silver medal as a member of the East German 4 × 100 m relay team (she had at that time taken the name Möller).
In 1992 she was implicated with
Katrin Krabbe and
Grit Breuer in a
doping scandal, but was later cleared by the International Athletic Federation (
IAAF). Shortly before the
1992 Summer Olympics she quit her athletic career and began to study history in
Rostock. She worked as a history and sports teacher. She has a daughter.
Möller represented the Empor Rostock sport club and trained under Wolfgang Meier (Marita Koch's coach and now husband). While she was actively competing, she was 1.63 metres tall and weighed 57 kilograms.