André Lange

André Lange
nation	Germany
birthday	June 28, 1973
place of birth	Ilmenau ,  GDR
size	188 cm
Weight	100 kg
job	Sports soldier
Career
discipline	Two, four
position	pilot
society	BSR Rennsteig Oberhof
National squad	since 1998
status	resigned
End of career	2010
Medal table
Olympic medals 4 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 8 × 4 × 2 × EM medals 8 × 7 × 4 × JWM medals 3 × 0 × 0 ×
winter Olympics gold 2002 Salt Lake City four gold 2006 Turin two gold 2006 Turin four gold 2010 Vancouver two silver 2010 Vancouver four  Bobsleigh World Championships silver 2000 Altenberg two gold 2000 Altenberg four silver 2001 St. Moritz four gold 2003 Lake Placid two gold 2003 Lake Placid four bronze 2004 Königssee two gold 2004 Königssee four silver 2005 Calgary two gold 2005 Calgary four gold 2007 St. Moritz two bronze 2007 St. Moritz four gold 2008 Altenberg two gold 2008 Altenberg four silver 2009 Lake Placid four  European bobsleigh championships gold 2000 Cortina d'Ampezzo two bronze 2001 Königssee four silver 2002 Cortina d'Ampezzo two gold 2002 Cortina d'Ampezzo four silver 2003 Winterberg two silver 2003 Winterberg four bronze 2004 St. Moritz two gold 2004 St. Moritz four gold 2005 Altenberg two silver 2005 Altenberg four gold 2006 St. Moritz two silver 2006 St. Moritz four bronze 2007 Cortina d'Ampezzo two gold 2007 Cortina d'Ampezzo four silver 2008 Cesana Pariol two bronze 2008 Cesana Pariol four gold 2009 St. Moritz two silver 2010 Igls two gold 2010 Igls four  Bobsleigh Junior World Championships gold 1998 Cortina d'Ampezzo two gold 1998 Cortina d'Ampezzo four gold 1999 Altenberg four
Placements in the Bobsleigh World Cup
Debut in the World Cup 1998  World Cup victories 45  Overall World Cup two 1st (2007/08)  Overall World Cup foursome 1. (2000/01, 2002/03, 2003/04, 2007/08)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Two-man bobsleigh 19th 13 4th  Four-man bobsleigh 26th 13 9

André Lange (born June 28, 1973 in Ilmenau ) is a former German bobsleigh athlete . With four gold and one silver medal, he is the most successful bobsleigh pilot at the Olympic Winter Games to date .

Career

André Lange started tobogganing in the GDR at the age of eight and switched to bobsleigh in 1993. For a long time he was a sports soldier in the rank of sergeant major and started for the BSR Rennsteig Oberhof . In August 2009, he was made a professional soldier.

Athletic career

In 1998 he was junior world champion in two and four-man bobsleigh, and in 1999 in four-man. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City , he won his first gold in the four-man bobsleigh. Four years later he repeated this success at the Olympic Games in Turin and also won gold in the two-man bobsleigh. 22 years earlier, Wolfgang Hoppe had last achieved double gold in bobsleigh at the 1984 Winter Olympics . Lange has won eight world and European championships.

André Lange as the flag bearer of the German team at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver

At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Lange was the standard bearer for Germany. His team for the 2009/2010 season included Kevin Kuske , René Hoppe , Martin Putze and Alexander Rödiger . Lange started on February 20 and 21, 2010 as a pilot with his brakeman Kevin Kuske in the two-man bobsleigh, where on February 20, 2010 he was in second place after the first run and first after the second run, which he also took in defended runs 3 and 4 on February 21, 2010. Lange achieved a historic victory with it - he is the first bobsledder to win Olympic gold four times.

On February 26th and 27th, 2010, Lange started with Kevin Kuske, Alexander Rödiger (because René Hoppe was out due to injury) and Martin Putze in the four-man bobsleigh and after the 4th run was able to win just under silver ahead of Lyndon Rush .

After the 2010 Winter Olympics, Lange ended his career as an active bobsledder. With a total of four Olympic victories, he became the most successful bobsleigh pilot at the Olympic Winter Games to date. He received the Silver Laurel Leaf for his athletic achievements .

His record of 45 World Cup victories was exceeded in January 2021 by his compatriot Francesco Friedrich .

Life after the end of the career as an active athlete

After finishing his career as an active bobsleigh pilot, Lange worked in the coaching staff of the Bobsleigh and Sled Association for Germany (BSD). His team members switched to the pilots Maximilian Arndt and Thomas Florschütz . In 2010 he was elected an honorary member of the FIL. In the 2010/2011 season, Lange was an expert for ARD and analyzed the runs of the bobsleigh pilots.

From August 1, 2014 to the end of 2016, André Lange was the head of the Oberhof Federal Performance Center at the Olympic Training Center in Thuringia.

André Lange coached the host South Korea's team from the beginning of 2017 until the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. During the games he worked as a bobsleigh expert for rights holders Eurosport . Since July 2018, Lange has been the pilot trainer for the Chinese bobsleigh team on the way to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

André Lange has been in a relationship with the high jumper Ariane Friedrich since 2012 and became a father in 2014. The family lives near Erfurt .

successes

• Olympic Winter Games: 4 × gold, 1 × silver

  2002 - 1 × gold (foursome)

  2006 - 2 × gold (two, four)

  2010 - 1 × gold (two)

  2010 - 1 × silver (foursome)

• World Championship: 8 × gold, 4 × silver, 2 × bronze

  2000 - 1 × gold (foursome)

  2003 - 2 × gold (two, four)

  2004 - 1 × gold (foursome)

  2005 - 1 × gold (foursome)

  2007 - 1 × gold (two)

  2007 - 1 × bronze (foursome)

  2008 - 2 × gold (two, four)

• Overall World Cup ranking: 4 × first in four-man bobsleigh, 1 × first in two-man bobsleigh

  2001 - 1 × first (foursome)

  2003 - 1 × first (foursome)

  2004 - 1 × first (foursome)

  2008 - 2 × first (two, four)

• European Championship: 8 × gold, 7 × silver, 4 × bronze

  2000 - 1 × gold (foursome)

  2001 - 1 × bronze (foursome)

  2002 - 1 × gold (foursome)

  2002 - 1 × silver (two)

  2003 - 1 × silver (foursome)

  2003 - 1 × silver (two)

  2004 - 1 × gold (foursome)

  2005 - 1 × gold (two)

  2006 - 1 × gold (two)

  2007 - 1 × gold (foursome)

  2008 - 1 × silver (two)

  2008 - 1 × bronze (foursome)

  2009 - 1 × gold (two)

  2010 - 1 × gold (foursome)

World Cup victories

Two-man bobsleigh

Four-man bobsleigh

No. date place train 1. Jan 15, 2000  Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo bobsleigh run 2. 0Dec. 7, 2002  Innsbruck-Igls Igls artificial ice rink, bobsleigh 3. 0Feb 7, 2003  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 4th Dec 20, 2003  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsled run 5. Feb 14, 2004  Innsbruck-Igls Igls artificial ice rink, bobsleigh 6th Nov 27, 2004  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 7th Nov 11, 2005  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 8th. Nov 19, 2005  Lake Placid Olympic bobsleigh track Lake Placid 9. Jan. 20, 2006  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 10. 0Dec 1, 2006  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 11. 0Dec 7, 2006  Park City Park City bobsleigh 12. Dec 16, 2006  Lake Placid Olympic bobsleigh track Lake Placid 13. 0Feb 7, 2007  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 14th Feb 23, 2007  Koenigssee Combined artificial ice rink at Königssee 15th Nov 30, 2007  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 16. Jan. 26, 2008  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 17th 0Dec 6, 2008  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsled run 18th Dec 19, 2009  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsled run 19th Jan. 16, 2010  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina

No. date place train 1. Nov 14, 1998  Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo bobsleigh run 2. Dec 17, 2000  Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo bobsleigh run 3. Feb. 18, 2001  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 4th Jan. 25, 2001  Park City Park City bobsleigh 5. Nov 17, 2001  Lake Placid Olympic bobsleigh track Lake Placid 6th 0Dec 8, 2001  Innsbruck-Igls Igls artificial ice rink, bobsleigh 7th Jan. 26, 2002  Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo bobsleigh run 8th. 0Dec. 1, 2002  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsled run 9. 0Dec 8, 2002  Innsbruck-Igls Igls artificial ice rink, bobsleigh 10. 0Feb 8, 2003  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 11. Nov 22, 2003  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 12. Nov 30, 2003  Lake Placid Olympic bobsleigh track Lake Placid 13. Dec 21, 2003  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsled run 14th Jan. 25, 2004  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 15th Jan. 30, 2004  Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo bobsleigh run 16. Feb 14, 2004  Innsbruck-Igls Igls artificial ice rink, bobsleigh 17th Nov 12, 2005  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 18th 0Dec 2, 2006  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 19th 0Feb 3, 2008  Koenigssee Koenigssee artificial ice rink 20th Feb 10, 2008  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 21st Nov 30, 2008  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 22nd Dec 20, 2009  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsled run 23 Jan. 10, 2010  Koenigssee Koenigssee artificial ice rink 24. Jan. 17, 2010  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 25th Jan. 24, 2010  Innsbruck-Igls Igls artificial ice rink, bobsleigh

literature

• Short biography for:  Lange, André . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : André Lange  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• André Lange in the database of the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation
• André Lange in the database of Olympedia.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1st run two-man bobsleigh men. In: vancouver2010.com. Retrieved December 1, 2015 . 
2. ↑ 2nd run two-man bobsleigh men. In: vancouver2010.com. Retrieved December 1, 2015 . 
3. ↑ 3rd run two-man bobsleigh. In: vancouver2010.com. Retrieved December 1, 2015 . 
4. ↑ 4th run two-man bobsleigh. In: vancouver2010.com. Retrieved December 1, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Lange pusher Hoppe is injured. (No longer available online.) In: sport.orf.at. Formerly in the original ; accessed on December 1, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
6. ↑ Frank Kastner and Michael Fox / DPA / DPA: Olympia in Vancouver: Lange takes silver in the four-man bobsleigh. In: stern.de . February 28, 2010, accessed December 1, 2015 . 
7. ↑ First European Championship title for Francesco Friedrich in the four-man bobsleigh - World Cup record broken . In: deutschlandfunk.de, January 12, 2021 (accessed January 13, 2021).
8. ↑ Frank Kastner, Michael Fox, dpa: After Bob farewell: André Lange tobogganing again - STIMME.de. In: Stimme.de. March 1, 2010, accessed December 1, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Andre Lange becomes a functionary in Oberhof. In: Thuringian General . July 17, 2014, accessed December 1, 2015 . 
10. ↑ Uwe Martin: Nice break for Ariane Friedrich. In: FAZ.net . May 2, 2014, accessed December 1, 2015 .