Birgit Fischer (German pronunciation: ; born 25 February 1962) is a former German kayaker, who has won eight gold medals over six different Olympic Games, a record she shares with Aladár Gerevich and Isabell Werth, spanning seven Olympiads: twice representing East Germany (interrupted by the boycott of 1984), then four times representing the reunited nation. After both the 1988 and 2000 games, she announced her retirement, only to return for the subsequent games. She has been both the youngest- and oldest-ever Olympic canoeing champion (ages 18 and 42). In 2004, she was chosen as the German sportswoman of the year.

Fischer was born in Brandenburg an der Havel, then in East Germany. She attended an ASK (army sports club) boarding school in Potsdam, and worked as a sports instructor in the National People's Army, attaining a rank of major by the time of German reunification in 1990. She was married from 1984 to 1993 to canoeist Jörg Schmidt, silver medalist in the C-1 1000 m event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. She lives with their two children in Brandenburg. In 1999 she stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the FDP in the European Parliament election. Fischer's niece, Fanny, competed for Germany at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, winning a gold in the K-4 500 m event. Fischer's brother Frank won nine world championship medals between 1981 and 1986.

She also won 38 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medals between 1978 and 2005, including 28 golds. Fischer's career medal count was surp*ed by Hungary's Katalin Kovács at the 2011 championships in Szeged.

Fischer is also a photographer and displays works through the Art of the Olympians.

See also

• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event
• List of multiple Olympic medalists
• List of multiple Summer Olympic medalists
• List of athletes with the most appearances at Olympic Games

References

• Fotographie by Birgit Fischer (in German)
• ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships – Part 1: fla*er (now sprint): 1936–2007 at WebCite (archived 21 January 2009). Additional archives: Wayback Machine.
• ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships – Part 2: rest of fla*er (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936–2007 at WebCite (archived 9 November 2009)
• Official website (in German)
• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et:al. "Birgit Fischer-Schmidt". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.