Felix ENDRICH

Felix Endrich first made his mark on the international bobsledding scene in 1947, when he earned a silver medal in the two-man event at the World Championships with Fritz Waller. The duo then travelled to the 1948 Winter Olympics, where they won the two-man event and, alongside Heiri Angst and Fritz Feierabend, came in fourth in the four-man competition. Endrich was also Switzerland’s flagbearer during the opening ceremonies of these Games. Endrich and Waller became world champions in 1949 and, after Waller retired from active competition, Endrich teamed up with Werner Spring and took bronze in the two-man at the 1951 World Championships. This new duo attended the 1952 Winter Olympics, but came in fourth in both the two- and four-man events, assisted by Franz Kapus and Fritz Stöckli in the latter. With Stöckli’s help, Endrich redeemed himself at the 1953 World Championships by winning the two-man title, but his triumph was to be short lived. While engaging in a trial run for the four-man event, Endrich skidded over a wall on a dangerous curve and was thrown into a tree. Suffering a broken neck and a shattered skull, he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital, at the age of 32. An office equipment salesman by career, he had been married less than a month prior to his death. Stöckli escaped the accident with only minor injuries, while the other two members of the team, Aby Gartmann and the non-Olympian Rene Heiland, suffered serious injuries, but recovered. Two years earlier, Swedish bobsledder Rudolf Odenrich had died at the same curve.