Gert Potgieter (athlete)

Gert Potgieter

Medal record
Men's Athletics
Representing South Africa
British Empire and Commonwealth Games
	1958 Cardiff	440 yards hurdles
	1958 Cardiff	4x440 yards relay

Gert Potgieter (born on 16 April 1937 in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) is a retired South African Track and field athletics competitor, primarily known for the 400 metre and 440 yard hurdles.

He did participate in the 1956 Summer Olympics at the age of 19 and was in third position until he fell over the final hurdle, ultimately finishing sixth.

In 1957 he ran the 440 yard hurdles in 50.7 at an event in Queenstown, Eastern Cape. Only two days later was the public informed that it was a new world record..

At the 1958 Common Wealth Games he improved his record to 49.73. At 23 he, had achieved the world's best time in the event 49.3 (on a single turn, oversized track which disqualified any official world record). Potgeiter was a favorite for the Gold Medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics, but was seriously injured in an automobile accident in Germany two weeks before the Olympics, effectively ending his career at the age of 23 years. Despite a partial loss of sight, after years of physical therapy, he did manage to return to win the South African championship in the Decathlon in 1966. After 1956's disappointment in Melbourne, he proceeded to hit the world record four times.

Potgieter is currently managing an academy called Life is a Ball for underprivileged children. Potgieter was named South African Athlete of the Twentieth Century in 2012.

He married German Olympian Renate Junker.