Josef Benz (bobsledder)

Josef Benz
Full name	Josef "Sepp" Benz
nation	Switzerland
birthday	May 20, 1944
place of birth	Zurich ,  Switzerland
job	Luge official
date of death	February 5, 2021
Place of death	Switzerland
Career
discipline	Two and four-man bobsleigh
position	Pusher
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 2 × 1 × World Cup medals 3 × 2 × 3 ×
winter Olympics bronze Innsbruck 1976 two silver Innsbruck 1976 four gold Lake Placid 1980 two silver Lake Placid 1980 four  Bobsleigh World Championships gold Cervinia 1975 four silver St. Moritz 1977 four gold Lake Placid 1978 two silver Lake Placid 1978 four gold Königssee 1979 two bronze Königssee 1979 four bronze Cortina d'Ampezzo 1981 two bronze Cortina d'Ampezzo 1981 four
last change: February 6, 2021

Josef "Sepp" Benz (born May 20, 1944 in Zurich ; † February 5, 2021 ) was a Swiss bobsleigh athlete , Olympic champion and luge functional . He was an honorary member of the Lake Zurich bobsleigh club .

Life

At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck , he and helmsman Erich Schärer won the silver medal in the four-man bobsleigh and the bronze medal in the two-man bobsleigh. Four years later, at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid , he finally won the gold medal in the two-man bobsleigh and again silver in the four-man bobsleigh. At the bobsleigh world championships between 1975 and 1981, Benz won a total of three gold medals, two silver medals and three bronze medals, all with his long-time helmsman Erich Schärer . At that time, Benz was known as the “nation's brakes” and “Switzerland's fastest postman”.

After his bobsleigh career, as an SBSV official, he was very committed to luge sport in Switzerland. Together with the then national trainer Josef Lenz , he signed a contract for a training community with the German Luge Association, which is still in place today. He was also involved in the international luge association Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL) for many years (1989 to 2014). At the Luge World Championships in 2008 , 2009 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 and at the Olympic Winter Games in 2010 and 2014 , he held the position of chief jury officer. As an executive member of the FIL, Benz held the office of sports director and chairman of the sports commission from 2007 to 2014. He is considered one of the fathers of the team relay discipline introduced for the 2010/11 season.

Benz succumbed to a SARS-CoV-2 infection on February 5, 2021 . A minute's silence was held in his honor at the 2020/21 World Cup finals at the Olympia Bob Run St. Moritz – Celerina . He had campaigned for the final, which could not be held in China due to the COVID-19 pandemic , to take place in St. Moritz and would have been there as an SBSV official without his illness.

Web links

• Josef Benz in the Olympedia.org database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} FIL mourns the loss of former executive member Josef Benz. In: fil-luge.org. Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course, February 5, 2021, accessed February 6, 2021 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} "Brakeman of the Nation": Corona death drama about Swiss Olympic bobsleigh champions , blick.ch, February 6, 2021.