Birgit Fischer is a German kayaker, who has won eight gold medals over six different Olympic Games, a record she shares with Alad�r Gerevich, spanning seven Olympiads: twice representing East Germany, 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. In 2004 she was voted German sportswoman of the year. Fischer was born in Brandenburg an der Havel, then in East Germany. She attended an ASK 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 J�rg 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. 

February 25th, 1962 in Brandenburg an der Havel (Age 62)