Kurt HINZE

East German biathlete Kurt Hinze from Oberhof competed at the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics. He finished 20th in the only event in that era, the 20 km. He was called the “father of biathlon” in Thuringia. After his active career he turned to coaching and was partly chief coach of the former GDR national team.

During the 1970s he was responsible for starting biathlon World Cups. After German reunification he also became coach of the German men’s national team but was released in 1991, when doping cases from the former GDR times became known. He then became a consultant to the Austrian national team and a board member of the International Biathlon Union (IBU).