Hans CANDRIAN

Hans Candrian was involved in a variety of sports prior to taking up the bobsled in 1965. He was nationally ranked as a gymnast and reigned as a cantonal freestyle wrestling, cross-country, and combined ski champion. He made the Swiss national bobsledding team in 1967 and, one year later, won the European Championships in the four-man alongside Walter Graf, Willi Hofmann, and Jean Wicki. The quartet then ventured to the 1968 Winter Olympics, where their win in the second run allowed them to capture the bronze medal. Candrian and Wicki also finished ninth in the two-man event.

Candrian’s next stop was the 1970 World Championships, where he won bronze medals in the two and four-man events with the non-Olympian Gion Caviezel and Max Forster, René Stadler, and the non-Olympian Peter Schärer respectively. Candrian and Schärer also came in second in the two-man at the 1971 European Championships. Candrian attended the 1972 Winter Olympics with a completely different lineup, coming in seventh in the two-man alongside Heinz Schenker and fourth in the four-man with Schenker, Gaudenz Beeli, and Erwin Juon. With Schenker he also took silver in the two-man at the 1973 World Championships and, with Beeli and the non-Olympians Guido Casty and Yves Marchand, the four-man at the 1974 edition. He retired from active competition shortly thereafter, but remained athletically active across several sports. In January 1999 he suffered a heart attack while working out at home and died a week later after a fitness test in a hospital in Chur.