The 1.86 m tall Gerhard Haidacher from the Wattens bobsleigh club was a trained carpenter and helped his bobsled pilots not only with his ability to accelerate during the start phase, but also with tinkering and improving the sports equipment. At the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville, Ingo Appelt drove the Austrian four-man bobsleigh with Harald Winkler , Gerhard Haidacher and Thomas Schroll. With two hundredths of a second ahead of Wolfgang Hoppe's German bobsleigh , the Austrians won the gold medal, which is still the only Olympic gold medal for Austrian bobsledders to date (as of the 2014 Winter Games). After Appelt had finished his sporting career with an Olympic victory, Haidacher competed in the 1992 European Bobsleigh Championship in Hubert Schösser's bobsleigh , together with Hannes Conti and Martin Riedl , Schösser and Haidacher won the silver medal behind the German Harald Czudaj . At the 1993 European bobsleigh championships , the Swiss Gustav Weder won ahead of the German Dirk Wiese , followed by Hubert Schösser, Gerhard Redl , Harald Winkler and Gerhard Haidacher the bronze medal. In the FIBT World Championships 1993 won also Gustav Weder, the Austrian Bobsled won the silver medal. At his second start at the Olympics in 1994 in Lillehammer , Haidacher missed another medal by just under four tenths of a second with Hubert Schösser's four-man bobsled.