The German hurdler has won world and European age group titles and world records, but has suffered from Parkinson’s disease in recent years.
Guido Müller, arguably the greatest master athlete of all time, died on December 9 at the age of 87.
The German athlete had a 38-year career in the field of athletics masters, where he won 48 world, 103 European and 156 German titles.
He also set world age group records, some of which still stand, such as his 300m hurdles marks of M60 (42.31), M65 (43.88), M70 (45.24) and M75 (49.65).
Such was his brilliance, he was recognized three times as the best athlete of the year of the world masters of athletics. In 2014, when he won one of these awards, he held 17 masters world records at the time, spanning the M45 to M75 age groups.
Born in Stuttgart in 1938, as a younger athlete he had a PB of 51.3 for the 400m hurdles and narrowly missed out on the East German team for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
He then took a break from the sport to pursue family and business interests, but returned with a vengeance in the early 1980s and increasingly raised eyebrows among viewers with his amazing athleticism for his age.
Muller finally retired from competition in 2019 after making his mark in the social media age, where athletes of all ages watched videos of his races.
He also appeared on the cover Athletics Weekly Along with British Olympic distance runner Julia Bleasdale in 2014.
The World Masters Association said: “In the United States, a master athlete with Mueller’s achievements will be called “The Goat”, the greatest of all time.
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“During his 38 years in Masters athletics, he was named World Masters Athlete of the Year three times, European Senior Athlete of the Year twice and amassed an extraordinary record of 48 world titles, 103 European titles and 156 German national titles.
