Kevin Kuske (born 4 January 1979) is a former German

bobsledder 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 ...

who competed from 1999 to 2018. Competing in five

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 is the most successful Olympic athlete in bobsledding, winning four gold medals and two silver medals.

Career

Prior to his bobsleigh career, Kuske was a sprinter athlete, and won a bronze medal in 4 x 100 m at the

1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics is the 1998 edition of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held in Annecy, France from July 28 to August 2. Results Men 1 Ahmed Baday of Morocco originally won the bronze medal ...

. At the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, Kuske, along with teammates

André Lange André Lange (; born 28 June 1973) is a retired German bobsledder and the most successful bob pilot of all time. Competing at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, he has won four gold and one silver medals. Lange originally started his sledd ...

Carsten Embach Carsten Embach (born 12 October 1968 in Stralsund) is a German bobsledder who competed from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won two medals in the four-man event with a gold in 2002 and a bronze in 1994. ...

Enrico Kühn Enrico Kühn (born 10 March 1977 in Bad Langensalza) is a German bobsledder who has competed since 1995. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he won a gold medal in the four-man event with teammates Kevin Kuske, André Lange and Carsten ...

, won the gold medal in the four-man event. Four years later in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Kuske paired with Lange to win the gold medal in the two-man event, while those two, along with teammates

René Hoppe René Hoppe (born 9 December 1976 in Oelsnitz, Saxony) is a German bobsledder who has competed since 1998. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, he won a gold medal in the four-man event with teammates Kevin Kuske, André Lange, and Martin Putze ...

and

Martin Putze Martin Putze (born 14 January 1985 in Apolda, Thuringia) is a German bobsledder who has competed since the early 2000s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won two medals in the four-man event with a gold in 2006 and a silver in 2010. Putze a ...

, won gold in the four-man event. Kuske won gold in the two-man and silver in the four-man event at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. Kuske also has fifteen medals at the

IBSF World Championships IBSF World Championship may refer to: *IBSF World Snooker Championship *IBSF World Championships (bobsleigh and skeleton) The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Sk ...

, including seven golds (two-man:

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

; four-man: 2003,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, 2008), four silvers (two-man: 2005,

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

; four-man:

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

), and four bronzes (two-man: 2004, 2012; four-man: 2007,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

). After pilot André Lange's retirement in 2010, Kevin Kuske started with pilots

Thomas Florschütz Thomas Florschütz (born 20 February 1978 in Sonneberg) is a German bobsledder who has competed since 2006. He won a silver medal in the two-man event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He won three medals at the FIBT World Championship ...

and

Maximilian Arndt Maximilian Arndt (born 23 July 1987) is a former German bobsledder who has competed since 2003. He originally competed in luge A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. A luger steers b ...

. With Florschütz, he competed at the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

in both the two-man and four-man event, but failed to win any medals. After Florschütz and Arndt retired, Kuske joined the team of

Nico Walther Nico Walther (born 7 June 1990) is a German bobsledder. He competed in the four-man event at the 2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening ...

. In Walther's bobsleigh, Kuske won a silver medal in the four-man event at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

, therefore becoming the most successful bobsledder in Olympic history. Immediately after the Games, he announced his retirement.

References

External links

* * * * *
Bundswehr profile of Kuske

at sports123.com * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuske, Kevin 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Potsdam German male sprinters German male bobsledders Bobsledders at the 2002 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2006 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2010 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2014 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic bobsledders of Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic silver medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in bobsleigh Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics