Gustav Weder (born 2 August 1961 in

Diepoldsau Diepoldsau is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. History Diepoldsau is first mentioned in 891 as ''Thiotpoldesouua''. Schmitter is first mentioned in 1385. It was the cross ...

) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

der who competed from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Competing in three

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, he won four medals with two gold (Two-man:

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

), one silver (Four-man: 1994), and one bronze (Four-man: 1992). Weder also won eight medals at the

FIBT World Championships The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since 1930. Starting with 2002, championships of non-Winter Olympic ...

with four golds (Two-man:

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, Four-man: 1989, 1990, 1993) and four silvers (Two-man: 1989,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, 1993; Four-man: 1991). He was also a

Bobsleigh World Cup The Bobsleigh World Cup is an annual bobsleigh competitions. It has taken place since the 1984 Winter Olympics. Below is a lists of season champions. Each table shows the country and driver only. Combined men's Debuted: 1985. Medal table Two- ...

champion four times (Combined men's: 1988-9, 1990-1; Two-man: 1988-9, Four-man: 1990-1). Known for his intensity, Weder would

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...

every one of his

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

runs he raced on and study those videos for hours. It was so intense that Weder was caught one night during the

FIBT World Championships 1990 The FIBT World Championships 1990 took place in St. Moritz, Switzerland (Bobsleigh) and Königssee, West Germany ( Skeleton). St. Moritz hosted a championship event for the record seventeenth time. The Swiss city had hosted the event previousl ...

in St. Moritz scrapping ice off of a difficult corner on the

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

. Bobsleigh officials allowed him to compete, and he won his second world championship in the four-man Event. After studies in Switzerland and Canada, Weder finished his education with a PhD with Arnd Krüger in Social Sciences at the University of Göttingen. He has been working in Human Resources for major Swiss companies.

References

Bobsleigh two-man Olympic medalists 1932-56 and since 1964
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070929091333/http://sports123.com/bob/mw-2.html Bobsleigh two-man world championship medalists since 1931br>Bobsleigh four-man world championship medalists since 1930
*

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080409025356/http://sports123.com/bob/mwc-4.html List of four-man bobsleigh World Cup champions since 1985br>List of two-man bobsleigh World Cup champions since 1985
*Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2009). "Bobsleigh: Two-Man". In ''The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition''. London: Aurum Press Limited. p. 159.

External links

* * 1961 births Living people Swiss male bobsledders Olympic medalists in bobsleigh Olympic bobsledders of Switzerland Bobsledders at the 1988 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 1992 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 1994 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Switzerland Olympic silver medalists for Switzerland Olympic bronze medalists for Switzerland Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics 20th-century Swiss people {{Switzerland-Winter-Olympic-medalist-stub