Chosen as the West German flagbearer at the 1968 Winter Olympics, Hans Plenk was one of the most successful West German lugers of the 1960s. At the Olympics, he won the 1964 bronze medal in the men’s singles and in 1968 he took fourth place in the doubles and sixth in the singles. Plenk was also World Champion in 1965 in singles, and won several other World medals: singles runner-up in 1961 and 1963, and third in 1960 in the singles and the doubles (together with non-Olympian Horst Tiedke). He was a five-time German Champion in singles (1959, 1961, 1963-64, 1968) as well as winning three German doubles titles: 1964 with Wolfgang Winkler, 1965 (with J. Hasenkopf), and 1968 with Bernhard Aschauer.
