Oscar Plattner

Oscar Plattner at the 1948 World Railroad Championships in Amsterdam

Oscar Plattner (left) with Antonio Maspes and Jos De Bakker at the award ceremony in the sprint discipline at the 1960 World Track Championships in Leipzig

Oscar Plattner (born February 17, 1922 in Tschappina ; †  August 21, 2002 in Zurich , entitled to live in Thusis ) was a Swiss professional cyclist . He was a sprint specialist on the track .

Success as an athlete

Plattner's career began in 1940 with victory in the beginners' race at the Zurich championship. He started for the RV Höngg club. Plattner won a total of 21 Swiss championship titles and six World Championship medals. Although Plattner was also able to celebrate successes on the road, he mainly turned to track cycling. After he returned to Australia from a competition trip in the winter of 1953 , he made the final switch to the track. He was not only one of the world's best sprinters, but also won 6-day races with various partners and set various track and world records. He drove a total of 85 six-day races.

After becoming the amateur sprinter world champion on August 25, 1946 at the open race track in Zurich- Oerlikon , he won the title of professional driver in Paris in 1952 . The following year, Plattner won the sprint classic Grand Prix de Paris . In 1955 and 1960 World Cup silver was added. In the competitions in 1956 and 1962 he also won the bronze medal in the sprint discipline.

Career as a coach

In 1965, Plattner ended his more than 25 years of active activity and started a second career as national coach, which he completed just as successfully in 1982. He was the first full-time national coach in Switzerland. During this time Plattner made a difference in the Swiss cycling scene and created structures from which Swiss Cycling still benefits today. Not to be forgotten are the Olympic and World Cup medals that he won with the national team, the rail and road drivers, and a. 1980 Olympic gold with Robert Dill-Bundi and 1978 World Cup with Gilbert Glaus . He was also the inventor of the kilometer test, a competition for youngsters on the Oerlikon open race track. From this talent factory are u. a. World champion Xaver Kurmann ( single pursuit ), world champion and Olympic champion Robert Dill-Bundi (pursuit), as well as multiple world champion Urs Freuler ( points race ) emerged.

He found his final resting place in the Hönggerberg cemetery .

Professional

Plattner was a trained businessman.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Oscar Blattner. In: The Bern Week, 1946
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Swiss Cycling Association (ed.): SRB calendar 1965 . Grenchen 1965, p. 138 .
3. ↑ Chronicle. In: rvhoengg.ch. Retrieved January 22, 2020 . 

Web links

• Palmarès
• Oscar Plattner in the database of Radsportseiten.net