Anja Brinker is a Germanartistic gymnast. Brinker is currently student and lives in Seelze-Lathwethren. Her former coach was Dieter Koch, the husband of the current German National Coach Ulla Koch. Now she is coached by Oleg Tchekmarov. She started training in her hometown of Melle at age six. Because of the better training condition, she and her family moved to Hannover. When she was thirteen the training center there was closed and so she started to train at one of the national training centers at Bergisch Gladbach. In 2004, she won gold at the German Junior Nationals on bars and placed third in the All Around. The next year she became Junior National Champion in the All Around and on vault. She also earned a second place on floor and a third place on bars. In 2006, Anja took part in the Junior European Championships in Volos, Greece. Together with Marie-Sophie Hindermann, Joeline Möebius, Lisa-Katharina Hill and Dorothee Henzler she won the bronze medal in the team competition, a great success for a German team. She placed nineteenth in the All Around and qualified for bars event final where she finished seventh. 2007 was Anja's first year as a senior. At German Nationals, she won gold on bars, silver on floor and in the All Around. She competed at the Ghent World Cup, where she was fourth on bars. At the 2007 European Championships in Amsterdam she placed tenth in the All Around and sixth in bars finals. That year Anja was a part of the German team at the 2007 World Championshipsin Stuttgart that managed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing with a respectable tenth place. Brinker was 18th in the All Around, but couldn't qualify for bars final. Despite of some injuries at the beginning of 2008, Anja could qualify for the German team for the Olympic Games in Beijing. There she only competed on her best even, the uneven bars where she could have qualified for event final, but unfortunately, she had a mistake at her dismount still scoring great 15.125 points. The team couldn't live up to the expectations and place 12th and last in qualifications. But it was still a great success that a German team could take part at the Olympics the first time since Barcelona in 1992.
