Nico Baracchi

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Nico Baracchi (born April 19, 1957 in Celerina ; † March 24, 2015 ) was a Swiss skeleton and bobsleigh pilot .

Nico Baracchi was appointed to the Swiss national skeleton team in 1981 , together with Marcel Melcher , as a former Cresta Run driver and after just one day of training. At the 1982 World Championships in St. Moritz , he finished second behind Gert Elsässer . In 1983 the European Championships followed in Igls , where he finished third behind Alain Wicki and Elsasser. In 1984 in Winterberg , 1985 in Sarajevo and 1986 in St. Moritz, he won the European Championship.

He then switched to the bobsled as a pilot, like other later bobsledders. Here was his best year in 1989, when he was in the four-man bobsleigh with the pushers Christian Reich , who later became a world-class bob pilot himself, Donat Acklin and René Mangold as brakes behind the sled controlled by Gustav Weder and in front of Wolfgang Hoppe at the world championships in Cortina d ' Ampezzo won silver. He finished third in the overall World Cup for two-man bobsleigh and in the combined World Cup for two-man and four-man bobsleigh in the 1988/89 season.

For the 1991/1992 season he moved back to the skeleton, but could no longer build on the old successes. At the 1992 World Championships in Lake Placid he was only eleventh, in 1995 in Calgary only 15th and 1997 in Lake Placid even only 21. In the World Cup, the 12th place was the best result.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nico Baracchi in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
  2. ↑ Alessandro Genuzio: Se n'è andato Nico Baracchi tre volte campione d'europa di skeleton negli anni ottanta. Obituary on neveitalia.it of March 25, 2015 (accessed in Italian on April 9, 2015).
  3. ↑ Report by Melcher (pdf)
personal data
SURNAME Baracchi, Nico
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss skeleton and bobsleigh pilot
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Celerina
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 2015