Wolfgang Schmidt (born 16 January 1954) is a German former track and field athlete who competed for East Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics and won the silver medal in the discus throw.

He was constantly under surveillance by the Volkspolizei and they uncovered a plan for his escape (aided by discus colleagues Ricky Bruch and Alwin Wagner); in the autumn of 1982, Schmidt was sentenced to one and a half years in prison.

[3] However, one year later he was paroled, on the condition he become a coach with SC Dynamo Adlershof, a sports team of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Watch Regiment.

At the end of 1987, he was allowed to move to West Germany, though it was already too late to be considered for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

After the first track competition between East and West Germany, Jürgen Schult, having won the discus throw, refused to shake hands with Schmidt.