She had been an outstanding performer in the throws, in the years after the Second World War.

Werner won the German discus championship in 1947 and was a dominant figure at national level in both shot put and discus in the early 1950s.

She won national titles in discus from 1951 to 1954 and was West German champion in shot put from 1953 to 1959, missing out on the title only in 1955 when she took bronze. 

The Dülmen-born athlete caught the eye of selectors for the Helsinki 1952 Olympics and was chosen for both disciplines as Germany returned to the Olympic Movement after exclusion from international sport following the war.

In the discus, she was third after the qualifying round, but slipped to ninth in the final.

Almost a week, later she competed in the shot put.

As the final round began, she was lying in fourth, but her final effort of 14.57 metres gave her silver behind Galina Zybina of the Soviet Union, who registered a world record of 15.28m.

In an era when Soviet throwers were dominant, Werner also placed fifth in the shot put at the 1954 European Championships in Berne and 11th in discus.

Werner was selected again for the combined Germany team at the Melbourne 1956 Olympics.

In contrast to Helsinki, where she had secured her medal with her final throw, she recorded her best distance of 15.61m with her first effort of the final.

Another Soviet thrower Tamara Tyshkevich took gold and Werner was again beaten by Zybina who won silver this time.

Werner also placed 10th in the discus in Melbourne.

At the Stockholm 1958 European Championships, Werner gained her only major title.

Her winning put of 15.74m was a European Championships record at the time.

It meant she defeated both 1956 Olympic champion Tyshkevich and future 1960 gold medallist Tamara Press, also of Soviet Union

It was a performance which earned her the title of Germany's sportswoman of the year for 1958.

Werner was also presented with the Rudolf Harbig Memorial Award, only the second woman to receive it after its inception in 1950.

She later became a professor in Sports Science at the University of Dortmund.

In 1961, she wrote a textbook on her sport entitled 'Methodology of Throwing Events for Schools and Clubs' with her first husband Erich Werner. 

In 1985, she was also awarded the Dr.Hans-Heinrich-Sievert Award.

Werner is believed to have been the oldest Olympic athletics medallist at the time of her death.

She is also thought to have been Germany's oldest surviving Olympian.

Dutch-born swimmer Erne Herbers who competed in the 100m backstroke at Helsinki 1952 is now considered to be the oldest at 98.