Kurt Kucera

Kurt Kucera (born June 17, 1932 in Vienna ; † April 6, 2004 ) was an Austrian judoka and functionary in the Austrian Judo Association , of which he was president from 1967 to 1987.

biography

Kurt Kucera began his career as an active judoka at JC Favoriten (today JC Manner) and in 1954 took second place at the Vienna Championship in the Kyū class "difficult". In 1955 he became the Viennese champion and reached third place in the Austrian championship.
He began his career as a functionary as early as 1953 when he took over the office of youth officer, which he held until 1955. In addition, he was secretary from 1950 to 1960 and from 1960 to 1962 chairman of the then regional judo association for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. From 1960 to 1967 he was also the association captain of the ÖJV, and in this role he was jointly responsible for many successes.

As early as 1965, he was sent to the Federal Sports Council Committee (today BSO) as a representative of the ÖJV. In 1971 he was elected third vice-president of the European Judo Union EJU. On his initiative, the EJU launched the European Cup in 1975. In 1982 he was elected second vice president of the EJU.

Due to his commitment, a contract was signed with the municipality of Vienna in 1983, the aim of which was to found a Vienna judo center. Shigeyoshi Matsumae and ex-Olympic champion Isao Inokuma came from Japan from Tōkai University . Since Matsumae co-signed this contract, the judo center was named Matsumae Budocenter after him .

On April 7, 1984, Kucera was elected President of the EJU. He was also Vice President of the IJF . He performed these two functions for 12 years, i.e. until 1996. After his resignation as ÖJV president, he was awarded the honorary presidency. With a term of office of 20 years (1967–1987) he was the longest-serving president of the ÖJV. He was also elected honorary president of the EJU when he resigned from office. On March 11, 1991, he was awarded the "Guest Professorship" from Tōkai University. Since Kucera wanted to continue working for sport, he was elected President of the Austrian Federal Sports Organization in 1992 . He held this office until 1995. He was also vice president of the ÖOC for many years .

Kurt Kucera died on April 6, 2004 at the age of 72.

Kurt Kucera Hall

On April 30, 2006 the PAHO hall was renamed Kurt Kucera Hall. A bronze cast with a relief by Kurt Kucera, which the Austrian artist Johann Polak , himself a former judoka, was attached to the hall . As part of the renaming celebrations, the annual school tournament called the Kurt Kucera Cup was held for the first time.

Success as President

During Kucera's term of office as President, the ÖJV celebrated its greatest successes:

• Robert Köstenberger became European champion in Rostock in 1982 in the class up to 95 kg
• Peter Seisenbacher becomes Olympic champion in Los Angeles in 1984 in the class up to 86 kg
• Josef Reiter wins the bronze medal in the class up to 65 kg in Los Angeles in 1984
• Peter Seisenbacher becomes world champion in the class up to 86 kg in Seoul in 1985
• Peter Seisenbacher becomes European Champion in Belgrade in 1986 in the class up to 86 kg

• Edith Hrovat becomes European champion eight times: 1975 in Munich (up to 48 kg), 1976 in Vienna, 1977 in Arlon , 1978 in Cologne , 1979 in Kerkrade , 1981 in Madrid , 1982 in Oslo and 1984 in Pirmasens (everything up to 52 kg)
• Gerda Winklbauer is European champion five times: 1978 in Cologne, 1979 in Kerkrade, 1980 in Udine , 1981 in Madrid and 1983 in Genoa (everything up to 56 kg)
• Herta Reiter became European Champion in the class up to 61 kg in Oslo in 1982
• Edith Simon became European Champion in Oslo in 1982 in the class up to 66 kg and in the all category
• Hrovat, Winklbauer and Simon won the title in their weight classes at the first Women's World Cup in New York in 1980 .