sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace *Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automotive and motorcycle *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, ...

sports coach A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the Hun ...

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

Swiss records 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 International ...

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

100 metres at the Olympics The 100 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 100 metres has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. The 100 metres is considered one of the blue ribbon e ...

1995 World Championships in Athletics The 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden on 5–13 August 1995. This edition featured 1804 athletes from 191 nat ...

1985 IAAF World Indoor Games The World Indoor Games were arranged by the IAAF and held at the Palais Omnisports Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from January 18 to January 19, 1985. In 1987 the championship was renamed to the IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athlet ...

1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid, Spain, on 22 and 23 February 1986. The track used at the stadium at the time was 164 metres long.bobsleigh and competed in European and World level events. As a coach he led three athletes to Winter Olympics medals: Thomas Lamparter, Martin Annen, and Gregor Stähli.

Biography

Early life

Burkart became interested in track and field upon seeing the

1968 Mexico Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

on television when he was a child. A recreational drug user in his youth, he travelled widely in his early twenties and converted to Scientology after visiting one of their academies in Sacramento, California. Following his conversion he returned to Switzerland and renewed his focus on sprinting. He made his first international appearance for his country at an indoor international match against Sweden in 1981.Stefan Burkart Geschichte
. Stefan Burkart Official website. Retrieved on 2014-02-01.

Sprint career

He claimed his first Swiss national title in 1982, sharing the 100 m title with the more established

Franco Fähndrich Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...

in a time of 10.47 seconds.Swiss Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. This led to his selection for the

1982 European Athletics Championships The 13th European Athletics Championships were held from 6 September to 12 September 1982 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. Men's results Compl ...

, where he was a 100 m semi-finalist. He ran a personal best of 10.42 in the 1983 season.Stefan Burkart
Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. He took his first win at the Swiss Indoor Championships in 1985, taking the national title in the 60 metres – he went on to win eight consecutive Swiss titles from 1985 to 1991.Swiss Indoor Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. He made his global debut at the

1985 IAAF World Indoor Games The World Indoor Games were arranged by the IAAF and held at the Palais Omnisports Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from January 18 to January 19, 1985. In 1987 the championship was renamed to the IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athlet ...

and was a semi-finalist after having set a personal best of 6.66 seconds in the first round. He competed in the event at the

1985 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1985 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, Piraeus, Attica, Greece, on 2 and 3 March 1985. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Participating nations * (10) * (5) * (13) * (4) * (21) ...

a few months later but did not progress beyond his first race. The highlights of his 1986 season were a 60 m lifetime best and Swiss record of 6.61 seconds and a semi-final placing in the event at the

1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid, Spain, on 22 and 23 February 1986. The track used at the stadium at the time was 164 metres long.Helen Barnett, a fellow sprinter and British Olympian. Burkart missed the opportunity to run at the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

due to an injury, but rebounded with a personal best of 10.39 seconds in 1989. That same year he won the 100 m "B" final section at the 1989 European Cup. He represented Switzerland at the

1990 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1990 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, on 3 and 4 March 1990. It was the last time that the event had been held annually and not biennially as it is now, as well as the last time that it was held ov ...

and the

1990 European Athletics Championships The 15th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 August to 2 September 1990 in Split, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. The host stadium was Stadion Poljud. It was the last participation of East Germany (which was already scheduled to be merged ...

and knocked a further hundredth off his 100 m best that year. He failed to make it out of the 60 m heats at the

1992 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1992 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in 1992 in Genoa, Italy. This was the first edition to be held biannually and not annually and also the first to be held over three days as opposed to two. It also marked the debut of the ...

but had the best outdoor season of his career, setting a 100 m best and Swiss national record of 10.32 seconds as well as a

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

best of 20.76 seconds. This earned him his Olympic debut at the age of 34 and he was a quarter-finalist in both the sprints.Stefan Burkart
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. He qualified for the

1993 World Championships in Athletics The 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Neckarstadium, Stuttgart, Germany between 13 and 22 August with the participation of 187 nations. Having ori ...

the following year, but did not start due to injury. Burkart reached the quarter-finals of the 100 m at the

1994 European Athletics Championships The 16th European Athletics Championships were held from 7 August to 14 August 1994 in the Olympic Stadium of Helsinki, Finland. Men's results Complete results were published. Track 1986 , 1990 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , Field 1986 , 1990 , 199 ...

and matched that feat at the

1995 World Championships in Athletics The 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden on 5–13 August 1995. This edition featured 1804 athletes from 191 nat ...

. He also won the "C" final section at the 1994 European Cup. In 1996 he claimed his tenth Swiss title in the 60 m and his ninth title in the 100 m. He also qualified for his second Olympics at the

1996 Atlanta Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. He failed to make it past the first round but he became the oldest male athlete ever to compete in the

100 metres at the Olympics The 100 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 100 metres has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. The 100 metres is considered one of the blue ribbon e ...

. After that season he largely retired from athletics, but made further appearances at the Swiss Indoor Championships, competing in 1999 and finally in 2002. He also won the 100 m in the over-40s division at the 2002 European Veterans Athletics Championships.European Veterans Championships (Men)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-02-01.

Bobsled and coaching career

Burkart was approached by Swiss bobsledder

Christian Meili Christian Meili (born 7 January 1963) is a Swiss bobsledder who has competed in the early 1990s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of fifth in the four-man event at Albertville in 1992. Meili is still active as an officia ...

and sprinter-turned-bobsledder

René Mangold René Mangold (born 7 December 1963St. Galler Tagblatt, 16 February 2007: 26. Schweizer Hallen-Leichtathletik-Meisterschaften', p. 5. URL last accessed 2012-10-25.) is a Swiss track and field athlete and bobsledder. Track and field Ac ...

in 1995 and they urged him to try out the winter sport. He competed in the Swiss team in 4-man bobsleigh at the

Bobsleigh European Championship The European Bobsleigh and Skeleton Championships is the main bobsleigh and skeleton championships in Europe. Bobsleigh Two-man Medal table Four-man Medal table Two-woman Medal table Women's Monobob Medal table Skeleton ...

and

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- ...

from 1998 to 2002. Burkart soon began to focus on training younger bobsledders and athletes in the late 1990s with Fredi Steinmann. Among his training group were Olympic bobsleigh bronze medallists Thomas Lamparter and Martin Annen, as well as

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

specialist and Olympic medallist Gregor Stähli. Burkart also coached Daniel Dubois and

Andreas Baumann Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The name ...

, both of whom represented Switzerland in the indoor 60 m sprint which had been Burkart's speciality.

Personal life

Brukart was married to Helen Barnett, who represented Great Britain at the 1984 Olympics and Switzerland at the 1992 Olympics. Their son Nishan Burkart is a

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and a youth international with the

Switzerland national under-20 football team The Swiss national under-20 football team is the national under-20 football team of Switzerland controlled by Swiss Football Association. Competitive record FIFA U-20 World Cup Record Swiss national teams * Switzerland national football team ...

. Stefan Burkart died in 2020 after a long illness.

Competition record

;National titles *60 metres (indoors): 1985–1992, 1995–1996 (10) *100 metres (outdoors): 1982, 1985–1990, 1995–1996 (9)

Personal bests

* 60 metres – 6.61 (1986) *

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

– 10.32 (1992) *

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

– 20.76 (1992)

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkart, Stefan 1957 births 2020 deaths Swiss male sprinters Swiss male bobsledders Swiss sports coaches Olympic athletes for Switzerland Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Switzerland