She won the high jump gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Having competed for West Germany at the Olympic Games in 1984 and 1988, she emerged as the world's leading female high jumper of the early 1990s.

She is one of only four female high jumpers in history to have won all five titles, the other two being Stefka Kostadinova, Mariya Lasitskene and Yaroslava Mahuchikh.

She was also very successful at the Hochsprung mit Musik meeting, taking the title three times consecutively from 1991 to 1993 and securing a record fourth win in 1995.

Note: Henkel was forced to withdraw from the 1993 World Championship final due to injury, having cleared 1.90 m in the qualifying round.