René Lunden

René Lunden
Full name	René Baron de Lunden
nation	Belgium
birthday	June 2, 1902
place of birth	Brussels ,  Belgium
job	officer
date of death	April 3, 1942
Place of death	Chichester ,  UK
Career
discipline	Two and four-man bobsleigh
Medal table
World Cup medals 1 × 0 × 0 ×
Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships gold 1939 St. Moritz two

René Henri Théophile Florent Marie Joseph Lunden (born June 2, 1902 in Brussels , †  April 3, 1942 in Chichester , West Sussex / United Kingdom ) was a Belgian officer and bobsledder .

Career

After the death of his father Léopold Lunden (1868-1921), he inherited his title of baron and the castle s'Gravenkasteel near Humbeek . He first studied mining at the Catholic University of Leuven . From 1925 he did his military service in the Belgian Army, first in the cavalry and then in the air force . After Leopold III's accession to the throne . In 1934 he worked for the Belgian diplomatic service in South America .

Bobsleigh

At the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , Lunden took eighth place in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh.

In 1939 he became world champion in the two-man bobsleigh in St. Moritz together with Jeans Coops .

death

At the time of the attack by German troops on Belgium on May 10, 1940, Lunden belonged to a regiment that first fled to France and from there to England . He joined the Royal Air Force . Because of his age, he was not used as a pilot, but as a navigator. In 1942, his plane, a Douglas Boston Mk. III , crashed during a reconnaissance flight over France. Lunden was taken to a hospital in Chichester , southern England, where he succumbed to his injuries. In 1949 his body was transferred to Belgium.

successes

World championships

• St. Moritz 1939: World champion in the two-man bobsleigh

Olympic games

• Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936: 8th place in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh

Web links

• René Lunden in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Full biography (Dutch)