He won a bronze medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in the middle-heavyweight (under 90 kg) category, which also qualified as a bronze medal at world championships.

In 1982 he won another combined bronze medal in the world/European championships.

[1][2] He retired in 1983 and later admitted taking the performance-enhancing drug Oral Turinabol as part of the East German training system.

[4] Since 1990 he is a head coach of the German Weightlifting Federation, raising such athletes as Matthias Steiner.

He suffered a heart attack in 1995, which he attributed to his past doping practice.