Swiss Sliding and national bobsleigh coach Christoph Langen part ways consensually
Netstal (RWH) Bobsleigh Olympic Champion Christoph Langen (GER) and Swiss Sliding will go their separate ways from the end of May 2021. As the Swiss national federation announced in a media release, the employment relationship with the current head bobsleigh coach and junior national coach Christoph Langen will be terminated prematurely by mutual agreement. The reason is a restructuring of the sporting structures in the federation, which means that the youth sector will be managed separately from the Europe and World Cup.
Christoph Langen had been the junior coach of the Swiss bobsleigh teams since 2016. During this time, some of his young athletes made the successful leap into the World Cup and World Championship teams: In the 2020/2021 season, which has just ended, Michael Vogt and Simon Friedli finished the BMW IBSF World Cup in 2-man bobsleigh in fifth and sixth place overall. At the BMW IBSF World Championships, Friedli and Vogt finished fourth and fifth. In the 4-man bobsleigh, Michael Vogt became Junior World Champion.
In 2-woman Bobsleigh, Melanie Hasler took third place in the World Cup in St. Moritz to ensure the first podium finish for Swiss bobsleigh pilots since 2014 and won bronze at the Junior World Championships. At the final of the Women's Monobob World Series in Königssee (GER), Melanie Hasler tied fort he win with her Swiss team mate Martina Fontanive.
Christoph Langen won two Olympic gold medals as a bobsleigh pilot (1998 in 4-man bobsleigh, 2002 in 2-man bobsleigh) and seven World Championship and European Championship titles each. During his coaching era in Germany from 2010 to 2016, his athletes won eight World Championship titles (Francesco Friedrich in 2-man bob 2013, 2015 and 2016, in 4-man bob Manuel Machata (2011) and Maximilian Arndt (2013 and 2015) and in 2-woman bob Cathleen Martini (2011) and Anja Schneiderheinze (2016)) as well as eleven European Championship gold medals. ©RWH2021
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Photo (C): Sportpresse Reker, Dietmar Reker
