Manuel Machata (born 18 April 1984) is a German former

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 2005 to 2015. Manuel Machata grew up in Ramsau near

Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; the ...

, Germany. He attended the CJD Christophorus high school in Berchtesgaden. After completing high school he joined the sports group of the German army (

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

). He became German Junior Champion in both two and four-man and Junior World Champion in four-man bobsled in 2006. Machata started regularly at the European Cup since November 2006 where he won the 2006 and 2007 cups at Königssee and 2007 the four-man in Igls. He was behind

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 ...

in both two-man and four-man at Königssee 2007 and third in the 2008 two-man championships in Altenberg. He reached second place at the Junior World Championship 2009 at Königssee in both two and four-man bobsled. He decided the European Cup in 2009 for himself and secured his starting place for the 2010/11 World Cup after

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 ...

's retirement. Although he was ranked below fellow German drivers Karl Angerer and

, he dominated the difficult track in Whistler in a surprise victory in the two-man bobsled with his brakeman

Andreas Bredau Andreas Bredau (born 21 March 1984) is a German bobsledder who has competed since 2005. His best World Cup finish was second in the four-man event at St. Moritz in January 2010. Bredau finished seventh in the four-man event at the 2010 Winter Ol ...

in his World Cup debut. At the following World Cup stop in Calgary, he celebrated his maiden victory in the four-man race with his pushers Makarow, Bredau and

Poser Poser or ''variant'', may refer to: *a hard problem, a poser *a hard question, a poser People *Poseur, a person who inauthentically adopts a certain subculture *a person playing a role, a role-play, a fake, an imposter * Bob Poser (1910–2002) ...

. On 20 February 2011 he won silver in two-man at the World Championships Königssee, finishing 0.18 seconds behind Alexsandr Zubkov from Russia. His crowning event was the four-man World Championships on 27 February 2011, where he finished first and became World Champion. In March 2014 Machata received a 5,000 Euro fine and a one year ban from the

Bob- und Schlittenverband für Deutschland German Bobsleigh, Luge, and Skeleton Federation (german: Bob- und Schlittenverband für Deutschland e.V., BSD) is the official federation for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton in Germany. It is the German representative both to the International Bobslei ...

(BSD) after lending a set of bobsled runners to Russian bobsledder Alexander Zubkov in exchange for a fee. In October 2015 the BSD announced that Machata had retired from competition. The following month he was announced as the head coach of the Chinese bobsleigh team, following the awarding of the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Machata, Manuel 1984 births Living people People from Berchtesgaden Sportspeople from Upper Bavaria German male bobsledders German sports coaches