Rihards Kotāns

Rihards Kotāns
nation	Soviet Union
birthday	March 10, 1956
place of birth	Līvāni ,  Latvian SSR
size	185 cm
Weight	93 kg
date of death	March 20, 2010
Career
position	Pusher
society	Armiyski Sportski Club

Rihards Kotāns (born March 10, 1956 in Līvāni , Latvian SSR ; † March 20, 2010 ) was a bobsledder who competed for the Soviet Union.

Kotāns began his sporting career as a track and field athlete . In 1977 and 1978 he was champion of the Latvian SSR in the decathlon and in 1980 in the indoor heptathlon . In 1981 he switched to bobsleigh. Between 1981 and 1984 Kotāns took part in four European bobsleigh championships . His best result in the two-man bobsleigh was 13th in 1982 and 11th in the four-man bobsleigh in 1982 and 1984 . In 1982 he also took part in the World Championships and was there in the four-man bobsleigh 13. His only Winter Olympics Kotāns in 1984 in Sarajevo . There he started in the four-man bobsleigh and finished twelfth with his teammates Wladimir Alexandrow , Zintis Ekmanis and Jānis Skrastiņš .

After the end of his active career, Kotāns worked as a bobsleigh and skeleton trainer in Sigulda and was responsible for the Latvian Olympic bobsleigh and skeleton team in 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , 2010 .

Web links

• Rihards Kotāns in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )