He was a true hero of the ice track, won 10 medals at Olympic Games and World Championships as an active player for the defunct GDR and also ensured a rain of Olympic medals as a coach in Austria in the 1990s – Klaus Bonsack is now 81 years old died in his adopted home of Innsbruck!
“The FIL family mourns Klaus Bonsack with deep sympathy for his wife and two children and fond memories of an extraordinary personality. We will always have fond memories of Klaus Bonsack,” says Einars Fogelis, President of the FIL World Luge Federation. Born in East Germany, Bonsack won medals for the GDR at three consecutive Olympic Games: silver in the singles 1964 in his later home town of Innsbruck, Gold in doubles with Thomas Köhler and bronze in singles in Grenoble 1968 and bronze in doubles in Sapporo in 1972. After his active career he worked in various positions in tobogganing for many years, including between 1981 and 1998 as a technical delegate. After the political change in East Germany – In 1990 Bonsack became head coach of the Austrian Luge Federation in Germany, with whom he was able to celebrate four medals at the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville. Single-seater gold and silver for the sisters Doris and Angelika Neuner as well as single-seater silver and bronze for Markus Prock and Markus Schmidt. Austria and especially Innsbruck Bonsack remained true to after the end of his coaching career. In the last years of his life, the Olympian suffered from Parkinson’s disease and he also had to deal with the consequences of a stroke.
