Kevin Kuske

Kevin Kuske
nation	Germany
birthday	4th January 1979
place of birth	Potsdam ,  GDR
size	196 cm
Weight	115 kg
job	Sports soldier
Career
discipline	Two, four
position	Pusher
society	SC Potsdam
National squad	since 2001
status	resigned
End of career	2018
Medal table
winter Olympics 4 × 2 × 0 × World championships 6 × 4 × 3 × European championships 6 × 9 × 6 ×
winter Olympics gold 2002 Salt Lake City four gold 2006 Turin two gold 2006 Turin four gold 2010 Vancouver two silver 2010 Vancouver four silver 2018 Pyeongchang four  Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships gold Lake Placid 2003 two gold Lake Placid 2003 four bronze Königssee 2004 two gold Königssee 2004 four silver Calgary 2005 two gold Calgary 2005 four gold St. Moritz 2007 two bronze St. Moritz 2007 four gold Altenberg 2008 two gold Altenberg 2008 four silver Lake Placid 2009 four silver Königssee 2011 two silver Lake Placid 2012 four bronze Lake Placid 2012 two bronze Königssee 2017 four European bobsleigh championships silver Cortina d'Ampezzo 2002 two gold Cortina d'Ampezzo 2002 four silver Winterberg 2003 two bronze St. Moritz 2004 two gold St. Moritz 2004 four gold St. Moritz 2006 two silver St. Moritz 2006 four bronze Cortina d'Ampezzo 2007 two gold Cortina d'Ampezzo 2007 four silver Cesena 2008 two bronze Cesena 2008 four silver Igls 2010 two gold Igls 2010 four silver Winterberg 2011 two silver Winterberg 2011 four gold Altenberg 2012 two bronze Altenberg 2012 four silver Igls 2013 two bronze Igls 2013 four bronze Koenigssee 2014 two bronze St. Moritz 2016 two silver Winterberg 2017 four German championships bronze 2009 two gold 2009 four  Junior World Championships bronze Annecy 1998 4 × 100 m
last change: February 25, 2018

Kevin Kuske (born January 4, 1979 in Potsdam ) is a former German bobsleigh athlete who was active as a push in the bobsleigh teams of André Lange , Maximilian Arndt , Thomas Florschütz and Nico Walther . With four gold and two silver medals, he is the most successful bobsleigh athlete at the Winter Olympics .

Career

Kevin Kuske grew up in a sporty family with two younger siblings. His father, the criminal police officer Norbert Kuske (* 1955), was a javelin thrower (best distance: 75.80 m) and 1969 youth champion of the GDR , his mother, the teacher Roswitha Berndt, was a top class hurdler in the GDR. His brother Lucas Kuske (* 1981) was also a bobsleigh driver until 2009.

The sports soldier of the German Armed Forces Kevin Kuske began as a track and field athlete ( sprinter ). His best performance over 100 m was 10.5 s and he won a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in 1998 in Annecy (France) as the final runner of the 4 x 100 meter relay . After an injury, however, he was no longer a member of the squad . In 1999 he became a bobsleigh driver. From 1999 to 2010 Kevin Kuske started for the club BSR Rennsteig Oberhof , then for SC Potsdam .

Together with his bobsleigh pilot André Lange , he won the gold medal in the four-man bobsleigh at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the gold medal in the two- man and four-man bobsleigh at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin . At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver , Kuske and Lange became Olympic champion for the fourth time in the two-man bobsleigh and came second in the four-man bobsleigh. In addition, Kuske and Lange won a total of eleven medals at the Bobsleigh World Championships from 2003 to 2009 , but only missed the podium in the two-man bobsleigh competition of the 2009 Bobsleigh World Championship with 5th place.

After the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, his long-time bobsleigh pilot André Lange resigned. He then switched to Thomas Florschütz (BRC Riesa) and then to Maximilian Arndt (BSR Rennsteig Oberhof). At the 2012 Bobsleigh World Championship in Lake Placid , he won the bronze medal in the two-man bobsleigh and silver in the four-man bobsleigh as Maximilian Arndt's pusher. The following year he retired from Thomas Florschütz as a pusher at the 2013 Bobsleigh World Championship in the two-man bobsleigh with a thigh injury. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi were also disappointing for the two of them. Kuske was also out in the 2014/15 season due to a thigh injury. In 2016 he pushed the two-man bobsleigh again for Maximilian Arndt and was no longer considered after the disappointing placement for the four-man bobsleigh.

At the end of the season, Kuske announced that he wanted to switch to Nico Walther's team ( BSC Sachsen Oberbärenburg ). With Walther as a pilot, he achieved third place in the four-man bobsleigh at the 2017 World Bobsleigh Championship , winning a World Championship medal for the first time since 2012. The following year, he won a silver medal in the four-man bobsleigh at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , making him the most successful bobsleigh athlete in Olympic history with four gold and two silver medals. Immediately after the race, Kuske announced the end of his active career.

Kevin Kuske was one of the fastest pushers in bobsleigh. His record in the sprint over a 30-meter distance is 3.69 seconds. This is 0.09 seconds faster than the time Usain Bolt at the Olympic final in 2008 in Beijing in the 100-meter sprint of men in which he world record run, required over the first 30 meters.

For his sporting success he received the silver bay leaf .

successes

World Cup victories

Two-man bobsleigh No. date place train 1. 0Dec. 7, 2002  Innsbruck-Igls Artificial ice rink bobsleigh Igls 1 2. 0Feb 7, 2003  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 1 3. Dec 20, 2003  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsleigh run 1 4th Feb 14, 2004  Innsbruck-Igls Artificial ice rink bobsleigh Igls 1 5. Nov 27, 2004  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 1 6th Nov 11, 2005  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 1 7th Nov 19, 2005  Lake Placid Olympic bobsleigh run Lake Placid 1 8th. Jan. 20, 2006  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 1 9. 0Dec 1, 2006  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 1 10. 0Dec 7, 2006  Park City Park City 1 bobsleigh run 11. Dec 16, 2006  Lake Placid Olympic bobsleigh run Lake Placid 1 12. 0Feb 7, 2007  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 1 13. Feb 23, 2007  Koenigssee Combined artificial ice rink at Königssee 1 14th Nov 30, 2007  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 1 15th Jan. 26, 2008  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 1 16. 0Dec 6, 2008  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsleigh run 1 17th Dec. 19, 2009  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsleigh run 1 18th Jan. 16, 2010  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 1 19th 0Dec 9, 2011  La Plagne La Plagne 2 bobsleigh and racing sled run 20th Nov 17, 2011  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 2 21st 0Jan. 8, 2012  Altenberg Altenberg racing sledge and bobsleigh run 2 22nd 0Jan. 5, 2013  Altenberg Altenberg racing sledge and bobsleigh run 2

Four-man bobsleigh No. date place train 1. Jan. 25, 2001  Park City Park City 1 bobsleigh run 2. Nov 17, 2001  Lake Placid Olympic bobsleigh run Lake Placid 1 3. 0Dec 8, 2001  Innsbruck-Igls Artificial ice rink bobsleigh Igls 1 4th Jan. 26, 2002  Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo bobsleigh run 1 5. 0Dec. 1, 2002  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsleigh run 1 6th 0Dec 8, 2002  Innsbruck-Igls Artificial ice rink bobsleigh Igls 1 7th 0Feb 8, 2003  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 1 8th. Nov 22, 2003  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 1 9. Nov 30, 2003  Lake Placid Olympic bobsleigh run Lake Placid 1 10. Dec 21, 2003  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsleigh run 1 11. Jan. 25, 2004  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 1 12. Feb 14, 2004  Innsbruck-Igls Artificial ice rink bobsleigh Igls 1 13. Nov 12, 2005  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 1 14th 0Dec 2, 2006  Calgary Bobsleigh and sled run in Canada Olympic Park 1 15th 0Feb 3, 2008  Koenigssee Artificial ice rink Königssee 1 16. Nov 30, 2008  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 1 17th Dec 20, 2009  Altenberg Altenberg racing sled and bobsleigh run 1 18th Jan. 10, 2010  Koenigssee Artificial ice rink Königssee 1 19th Jan. 17, 2010  St. Moritz Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina 1 20th Jan. 24, 2010  Innsbruck-Igls Artificial ice rink bobsleigh Igls 1 21st Nov 18, 2011  Winterberg Winterberg bobsleigh run 2 22nd Feb 28, 2016  Koenigssee Koenigssee artificial ice rink 3 23. 17th Dec 2017  Park City Park City 4 24. 0Jan. 7, 2018  Altenberg Altenberg racing sledge and bobsleigh run 4 25th Jan. 21, 2018  Koenigssee Koenigssee artificial ice rink 4

¹Pilot André Lange

²Pilot Thomas Florschütz

³Pilot Maximilian Arndt

^4thPilot Nico Walther

Guest appearances in films

In 2014, Kuske had a supporting role as a runner in the fairy tale film Sixes Come Through the Whole World from the 7th season of the ARD fairy tale series Six in One fell swoop .

Honors

• 2006, 2007, 2008 Sportsman of the Year of Brandenburg

Web links

Commons : Kevin Kuske  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Kevin Kuske in the database of the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation
• Kevin Kuske's website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kuske resigns as Olympic record holder. Sport1.de, February 25, 2018, accessed on February 25, 2018 . 
2. ^ Bobsleigh pushers Kuske: Faster than Usain Bolt. In: Der Spiegel . February 8, 2012, accessed April 24, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Märkische Allgemeine , December 16, 2013, p. 18