Reiner Ganschow

Reiner Ganschow played with SC Empor Rostock and started his career as a shot putter and discus thrower in his youth, becoming junior champion in the former GDR in 1964. As an international handball player he earned a silver medal at the World Championships outdoors in 1966 and indoors in 1970 and 1974. He earned 206 international caps and recorded 754 goals. In 1972 he placed fourth with the GDR at the München Olympics. Domestically Ganschow was East German Champion with Rostock in 1968, 1973 and 1978.

Ganschow then started coaching and was national coach in Algeria and Tunisia in the 1970s. From 1985-89 he coached his homeclub SC Empor Rostock, then GW/SYC Rostock and moved to Switzerland to coach Grasshoppers Zürich in 1994. He also worked as a high school teacher at the Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur in Leipzig and as a sports teacher in Switzerland. He was married to former non-Olympic diver Christine Grundmann and had two sons Ulf and Heiko, who also became handball players in Rostock.