26 June 2018

Earlier today, the German Rowing Association (DRV) announced that the World Champion and Olympic oarsman Dr. Roland Baar, of Gifhorn, passed away last weekend in a car accident at the age of 53. Baar was a member of the German eight between 1989 and 1996 and won a total of five world titles and an Olympic silver medal in 1996 and an Olympic bronze medal in 1992. In a Tweet from earlier today, Henley Royal Regatta mentions that Baas was the stroke of a record-breaking Hansa Dortmund eight which was the first crew to go under 6 minutes at Henley, in the 1989 Grand Challenge Cup. The World Rowing Federation, FISA, awarded him the organisation’s highest award, the Thomas Keller Medal, in 1998.

After his active rowing career had come to an end, Baar was a member of the athletic commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and later an IOC member, and a member of the board of the Nationales Olympisches Komittee, the National Olympic Committee, NOK. In 2012, he acted as an Ombudsman for the Nationale Anti Doping Agentur, NADA, in Germany. Baar was an honorary member of RV Osterholz-Scharmbek and the Hannoversche Ruder-Club.

After Baar gained a doctorate at Leibniz University Hannover, he made a career in the automotive industry. In 2011 he was appointed Professor of Internal Combustion Engines at the Technische Universität Berlin.