Heide Ecker-Rosendahl: Special memories of the FISU Games

She was the face of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

But few people know that Heide Ecker-Rosendahl had already won her first international gold medal and set a world record two years earlier, at the Summer Universiade in Turin in 1970.

Today, the Universiade is known as the World University Games. This year, the world’s largest multi-sport event for university students will take place from July 16 to 27 in the Rhine-Ruhr region. The host cities for the 18 sports are Duisburg, Essen, Bochum, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Hagen, and Berlin.

The Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games will be officially opened in Duisburg, where the Universiade was previously held in Germany only once before—in 1989. Back then, it was Heide Ecker-Rosendahl who lit the flame at the Wedau Sports Park as the final torchbearer.

To compete at the Universiade in Italy 55 years ago, she had to re-enroll as a student—even though she had already passed her final exams.

"The German Sport University in Cologne only gained university status in 1969, but by then I had already completed my degree. So I enrolled in some special subject just so I could go to the Universiade in Turin," recalls the Olympic champion, who is now 78 years old.

Ecker-Rosendahl was already close to the world record before

By 1970, Ecker-Rosendahl had already come very close to the world long jump record several times. That year, it was finally meant to happen—and the Universiade in Turin was the only major event on the calendar. For many spectators in the stadium, it already seemed to happen on her very first attempt.

"I was in great shape, had an amazing jump, came out of it with a fantastic feeling—and then the official raised the red flag. Overstepped," she says, describing the start of the competition.

Some German teammates in the stands believed the opening jump had gone beyond 6.90 meters—a world record. After Ecker-Rosendahl protested, the jump was eventually declared valid.

"But by then, the mark in the sand had already been smoothed over," she still laments today.

But she didn’t let it throw her off. On her second attempt, she set a new Universiade record with a jump of 6.79 meters—and on her final attempt, she broke the world record:

6.84 meters.

"Winning Olympic gold is wonderful—but it’s more of a battle against your opponents. A world record, on the other hand, is the ultimate. You get the feeling: no one on Earth has done this before you," says the Leverkusen native.

Her world-best mark stood for six years, until 1976.

By then, she had already retired from competitive athletics. She had won Germany’s first gold medal at the 1972 Olympic Games on home soil, in the long jump. Two days later in Munich, she celebrated silver in the pentathlon and another gold—this time anchoring the German sprint relay team to a world record.

Ecker-Rosendahl was Sportswoman of the Year in Germany

After that, “Gold-Heide with the red and white striped socks” was known to 97 percent of the German population and was, of course, named Athlete of the Year 1972.

She had already achieved that honor in 1970, after her world record at the Universiade. At the celebration in Turin, she and her fellow athletes were kicked out of their hotel.

"It was probably a little too wild. And I was actually supposed to run hurdles the next day. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen," she says with a smile.She remembers the Turin Games as “a kind of mini-Olympics.” Among students, it was easier to connect—"because you shared the same interests and daily routines," she says.

"Despite my competitive career, I studied full-time and passed my final exams at the age of 22. You have to set goals and achieve them," says Heide Ecker-Rosendahl.

Ecker-Rosendahl carries the torch into the stadium at the Opening Ceremony

That’s one reason why, in 1989, she was happy to light the Universiade flame in Duisburg.

And now, on July 16, things will come full circle in a very special way: Heide Ecker-Rosendahl will once again carry the official torch into the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena in Duisburg—at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games.