Double Olympic long jump champion Heike Drechsler has pulled out of next month's Games and decided to finish her distinguished career at the end of the season.
Drechsler, 39, won the Olympic title in 1992 and 2000 but has decided to opt out of the Athens Games because of her current poor form. She has not jumped beyond the Olympic qualifying mark this year.
At the age of 18 while competing for East Germany, Dreschler won the long jump gold medal at the inaugural 1983 world championships in Helsinki. She was the youngest gold medallist at the championships.
She then won 27 successive long jump competitions before she was injured at the 1987 Rome world championships. In the previous year, Drechsler had emerged as a world class sprinter, equalling compatriot Marita Koch's world 200 metre record.
She also set a world junior heptathlon record in 1981. Drechsler won the long jump title at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics but missed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 1999 Seville world championships through injury.
She returned in triumph at the 2000 Sydney Games, winning her second Olympic gold to end Marion Jones' dream of five gold medals.