Frank Wieneke

Frank Wieneke earns my admiration for a feat I find quietly thrilling: an Olympic judo gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, in a sport born in Japan, claimed by a German from Hannover. There's something pure about judo as a contest of technique and nerve rather than physique, and at 179 cm in the half-middleweight class he clearly won on craft and timing. Earning a place in Germany's Sports Hall of Fame confirms the brilliance wasn't a fluke. I have real affection for athletes who pour everything into a single decisive day, and Wieneke is exactly that kind of competitor worth remembering.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Frank Wieneke

Name (Japanese)

フランク・ウィニケ

Reading

ふらんく・うぃにけ

Born

January 31, 1962 (age 64)

Origin

Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany

Height

179 cm

Occupation

judoka

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Tiger

Awards & achievements

• Germany's Sports Hall of Fame

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank%20Wieneke
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%83%8B%E3%82%B1
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q69016

Tags

• Lower Saxony
• judoka

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.