Hans-Jürgen Gerhardt (born 5 September 1954 in

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

) is an

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobs ...

der who competed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

in Lake Placid, he won two medals with a gold in the four-man and a silver in the two-man events. Gerhardt also won five 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 FIBT World Championships 1930, 1930. Starting with 2002, no Wo ...

with three golds (Two-man:

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

, Four-man:

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

, 1981), one silver (Four-man:

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

), and one bronze (Four-man:

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

). Gerhardt later married Olympic figure skater Kerstin Stolfig.

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 1931
Bobsleigh four-man world championship medalists since 1930

1954 births Living people Sportspeople from Altenburg German male hurdlers German male bobsledders Bobsledders at the 1980 Winter Olympics Olympic bobsledders for East Germany East German male bobsledders Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic silver medalists for East Germany Olympic medalists in bobsleigh Bobsledders from Thuringia Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Bezirk Gera {{Germany-Winter-Olympic-medalist-stub