Joachim Deckarm is a former West German

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 handball

Team handball

Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...

 player who played for VfL Gummersbach

VfL Gummersbach

VfL Gummersbach is a team handball club from Germany. Currently, VfL Gummersbach competes in the German First League of Handball and the German Handball Cup.Gummersbach is one of the most successful team-handball club ever.-Accomplishments:...

 and the German national handball team. After surviving a horrific sports accident in 1979, he is mentally handicapped.

With Gummersbach, Deckarm won three German championships (1974-76) and two European team championships (1974 and 1978). Deckarm was part of the West German team which finished fourth in the Olympic tournament

Handball at the 1976 Summer Olympics

Handball at the 1976 Summer Olympics featured competition for men and women.On July 26, a Croatian nationalist ran onto the field of play during the men's match between SFR Yugoslavia and West Germany and burned the Yugoslav flag.-Medal summary:...

and part of the successful 1978 team which won the first handball World Championship for West Germany. He played all six matches and scored 28 goals. Deckarm was considered during his active time as a player to be the best player in the world.

Accident and aftermath

Deckarm's career abruptly ended on March 30, 1979 in a Eurocup match versus the Hungarian squad of Tatabanya. On a fastbreak, Deckarm sprinted towards the goal with the ball in his hands, but miserably clashed with a defending Tatabanya player Lajos Pánovics. The head of the two collided and Deckarm lost his consciousness immediately in the air. His head smashed against the ground (not a modern rebounding surface, but rather concrete covered by an inch of PVC layer), suffered multiple head trauma and lay in a coma for 131 days. When he awoke, he was basically locked into his own body, unable to move a limb. (Though he was not responsible for the accident and suffered less serious injuries, Pánovics decided to finish his career.) Fighting bouts of deep depression, Deckarm eventually fought his way back into life. He remained mentally handicapped, but regained his mobility and is capable of doing short interviews. He currently lives in his native Saarbrücken in a home for handicapped people.