Rainer Küschall

Rainer Küschall
racing wheelchair

Rainer Küschall

Personal information

Type of disability (class):

Quadriplegia (G82.5)

Nationality:

Switzerland

Birthday:

April 17, 1947

Place of birth:

Flims

Medals

Paralympic Games
bronze	1968 Tel Aviv	Double
bronze	1968 Tel Aviv	singles
gold	1972 Heidelberg	Double
gold	1972 Heidelberg	Doubles (team)
bronze	1972 Heidelberg	singles
gold	1976 Toronto	Doubles (team)
silver	1976 Toronto	singles
gold	1984 Stoke Mandeville	200 m
gold	1984 Stoke Mandeville	400 m
silver	1984 Stoke Mandeville	100 m
silver	1984 Stoke Mandeville	4 × 100 m
bronze	1984 Stoke Mandeville	800 m
silver	1988 Seoul	4 × 200 m
silver	1988 Seoul	marathon
bronze	1988 Seoul	100 m
silver	1992 Barcelona	1500 m
silver	1992 Barcelona	4 × 400 m
silver	1992 Barcelona	5000 m
silver	1992 Barcelona	800 m
silver	1992 Barcelona	marathon
bronze	1992 Barcelona	400 m
World Championships for the Disabled
bronze	1974 Stoke Mandeville	?
bronze	1974 Stoke Mandeville	slalom
bronze	1974 Stoke Mandeville	singles
silver	1979 Stoke Mandeville	singles
bronze	1979 Stoke Mandeville	slalom
bronze	1979 Stoke Mandeville	slalom
gold	1982 Stoke Mandeville	200 m
silver	1981 Stoke Mandeville	100 m
gold	1983 Stoke Mandeville	100 m
silver	1983 Stoke Mandeville	200 m
silver	1983 Stoke Mandeville	slalom
bronze	1983 Stoke Mandeville	400 m
gold	1985 Stoke Mandeville	100 m
gold	1985 Stoke Mandeville	200 m
gold	1985 Stoke Mandeville	400 m
silver	1985 Stoke Mandeville	800 m
silver	1986 Gothenburg	200 m
bronze	1986 Gothenburg	100 m
bronze	1986 Gothenburg	400 m
bronze	1986 Gothenburg	800 m
silver	1990 Assen	800 m
silver	1990 Assen	marathon
bronze	1990 Assen	400 m
European championships
bronze	1983 Ingolstadt	Double

last change: June 7, 2015

Rainer Küschall (born April 17, 1947 in Flims ) is a Swiss quadriplegic , racing driver, inventor and designer.

accident

In 1963, at the age of 16, Küschall sustained a serious injury to the cervical spine at the level of the C4-C6 vertebrae while diving in a pool. At that time there were no options for treating quadriplegia , which is why he had to spend the next two years bedridden in various hospitals and homes. Then Küschall came into contact with the neurologist and neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttmann , who set up the Stoke Mandeville Hospital . Guttmann put Küschall into a wheelchair for the first time, followed by severe rehabilitation.

Career

After many years of rehabilitation and sports, Küschall started his first job as an office worker in 1976. For him, however, this work proved to be impossible, which is why he resigned after two months. At home, Küschall used an old wheelchair and improved it by making some elementary changes. This ultimately led to the founding of Küschall AG. In 1976 Küschall started the first series production of wheelchairs, first out of the living room and later in a factory building. After a severe coma infection in 1996, Küschall sold his company to Invacare , a large rehabilitation and hygiene company from the USA. After a few years, Küschall recovered and, as Research and Development Director, took on responsibility for the company's technology and future products.

Invention of the monotube design

Up until the 1980s, wheelchairs were heavy ambulance devices that could hardly be moved by the user. In 1985, Rainer Küschall designed a completely new wheelchair called Competition , which weighed only 14 instead of the previously usual 25 kilograms and had a 40 percent lower overall volume. With weight reduction and new adjustment options for the seating position, he expanded the radius of action and mobility of a wheelchair and established the monotube design that is common today. The product named Competition (in the USA as Champion 3000 on the market) was a revolution at the time and still represents the most copied basic design for wheelchairs worldwide. In 1986 Küschall received the prestigious award from the Museum of Modern Art . The Competition wheelchair was the first medical device to be included in the MoMA collection and has been exhibited there ever since. A successor model weighs only 6.7 kilograms.

Active wheelchair from Küschall in monotube design
Active wheelchair in the old box design

Athletic career

During rehabilitation at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the 1960s, Küschall began playing table tennis , and in 1968 he took part in the Summer Paralympics for the first time . From 1982 he dedicated himself to wheelchair races and held multiple world records over almost every distance. By the end of his Paralympic sports career in 1992, Küschall had won a total of 21 Paralympic medals and was five times world champion.

In 2002 Küschall bought an AC Cobra 427 and since then has been the first Swiss quadriplegic to drive a car with an international license.