Sandis Prūsis (born 24 October 1965, in

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It ...

) is a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

coach and former bobsledder. Starting his career in the 1980s, he competed professionally from 1990 to 2003. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish in the two-man event at

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, he got fifth place. Prūsis's best

Bobsleigh World Cup The Bobsleigh World Cup is an annual bobsleigh competitions. It has taken place since the 1984 Winter Olympics. Below is a lists of season champions. Each table shows the country and driver only. Combined men's Debuted: 1985. Medal table Two- ...

finish was second two times, all in the four-man event (2000-1, 2002-3).

Professional career

Sandis Prūsis started to compete in the 1980s. In his first Winter Olympic Games in 1992 he was a originally a reservist, but took part in the games due to

Jānis Ķipurs Jānis Ķipurs (sometimes shown as Yanis Kipurs or Janis Kipurs, born 3 January 1958 in Kurmene, Kurmene parish) is a Latvian bobsledder who competed for the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, he wo ...

' injury, delivering a surprise by managing to overtake the team of his compatriot

Zintis Ekmanis Zintis Ekmanis (born 17 May 1958) is a former Latvian bobsledder who competed from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s. Competing in four Winter Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the two-man event at Sarajevo in 1984. Ekmanis also won a bronze ...

. In 1998 he was 5th in two-man competition and 6th in four-man competition in the Winter Olympic Games at Nagano. In 1998 he came 3rd in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

in two-man competition and combined competition. In the World Cups of 2000 and in 2003 Sandis Prūsis won the silver medal in four-man competition in general classification. In 2001 he won silver in four-man and bronze in combined competition at the World Cup. He became the four-man European champion in 2000 and 2003 (along with brakemen Mārcis Rullis, Jānis Silarājs, and Jānis Ozols). Prūsis has been a six-time-winner of the Latvian Bobsleigh Championship (1993, 1995, 1998 to 2001), champion of the

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Latvian SSR), also known as Soviet Latvia or simply Latvia, was a federated republic within the Soviet Union, and formally one of its 16 (later 15) constituent republics. The Latvian Soviet Socialist Rep ...

(1990), gold medalist at the 2000 Winter Goodwill Games and carried the flag of Latvia at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

. Sandis Prūsis finished his career after the 2002/2003 World Cup season in bobsleigh. After ending his bobsleigh career, Prūsis coached the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

bobsleigh team from 2004 to 2006. Since 2006, he has been the head coach for the Latvian team.

References

1992 bobsleigh two-man results
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080409025356/http://sports123.com/bob/mwc-4.html List of four-man bobsleigh World Cup champions since 1985br>List of two-man bobsleigh World Cup champions since 1985
1965 births Living people Bobsledders at the 1992 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 1994 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 1998 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2002 Winter Olympics Soviet male bobsledders Latvian male bobsledders People from Ventspils Olympic bobsledders of Latvia Latvian sportspeople in doping cases {{USSR-wintersport-bio-stub