Gustav Schwenk receives the IAAF World Journalist Award from IAAF president Lamine Diack (© IAAF)
The IAAF is delighted to confirm that Germany’s Gustav Schwenk is the recipient of the inaugural IAAF World Journalist Award.
The IAAF World Journalist Award was created on the recommendation of the IAAF Press Commission that the IAAF should mark outstanding lifetime contributions in the field of athletics journalism.
Schwenk, born in December 1923, found his calling in sports journalism after World War II. He began his career at the ‘Sport-Informations-Dienst’ news agency in Dusseldorf, working for them from 1947 to 1957.
From then on, he worked as a freelance journalist. To date he has reported at 14 Olympic Games, 11 World Championships, and countless other events at European and national level.
Schwenk has witnessed and reported on more than 300 world records, the highlights of which came at the 1959 and 1960 meetings in Zurich where he was the only German media representative to experience the world records of Martin Lauer in the 110m hurdles and Armin Hary in the 100m.
In fact, Schwenk wrote his own piece of athletics history. When Hary clocked 10.0 in Zurich, the time was not recognised due to an alleged false start. Schwenk successfully petitioned for a re-run, which was granted, and Hary replicated his 10.0 clocking, securing the world record.
Schwenk was awarded with the German Athletics Association's Golden Pin in 1959, the Carl Diem Plaque in 1984, the Heinz Cavalier Prize in 1987, and the IAAF's Plaque de Merite in 2007.
IAAF