Stefan Burkart (9 December 1957 – 3 May 2020) was a Swiss

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...

er and

sports coach An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''Coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ul ...

who specialised in the

60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At indoor events, the 60 metres is run on lanes set out in the mi ...

and

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

. His personal bests of 6.61 seconds and 10.32 seconds are former Swiss records for the events. He competed for Switzerland at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

in 1992 and 1996 – at the latter edition he became the oldest ever sprinter to compete in the men's

100 metres at the Olympics 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. He represented his country at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for me ...

on three occasions (1982, 1990 and 1994) and also ran at the

1995 World Championships in Athletics The 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi, Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden on 5–13 August 1995. This edition featured 1804 athletes from ...

. He had his best international performances indoors, reaching the semi-finals at the

1985 IAAF World Indoor Games The World Indoor Games were arranged by the IAAF and held at the Palais Omnisports Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from January 18 to January 19, 1985. In 1987 the championship was renamed to the IAAF World Indoor Championships and gained official st ...

and at the

1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid, Spain, on 22 and 23 February 1986. The track used at the stadium at the time was 164 metres long.bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobslei ...

and competed in European and World level events. As a coach he led three athletes to

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

medals:

Thomas Lamparter Thomas Lamparter (born 9 June 1978) is a Swiss former bobsledder who has competed since 2002. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the four-man event at Turin in 2006 as part of the crew of Martin Annen. Lamparter ...

, Martin Annen, and

Gregor Stähli Gregor Stähli (born 28 February 1968 in Zürich) is a Swiss skeleton racer who has competed since 1989. He won two bronze Winter Olympic medals in the men's skeleton, earning them in 2002 and 2006. Stähli also won ten medals at the FIBT Worl ...

Biography

Early life

Burkart became interested in

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

upon seeing the

1968 Mexico Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

on television when he was a child. A recreational drug user in his youth, he travelled widely in his early twenties and converted to

Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a scam, a Scientology as a business, business, a cult, or a religion. Hubbard initially develo ...

after visiting one of their academies in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

. Following his conversion he returned to Switzerland and renewed his focus on sprinting. He made his first international appearance for his country at an indoor international match against Sweden in 1981.Stefan Burkart Geschichte
. Stefan Burkart Official website. Retrieved on 2014-02-01.

Sprint career

He claimed his first Swiss national title in 1982, sharing the 100 m title with the more established Franco Fähndrich in a time of 10.47 seconds.Swiss Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. This led to his selection for the

1982 European Athletics Championships The 13th European Athletics Championships were held from 6 September to 12 September 1982 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. Men's results Comp ...

, where he was a 100 m semi-finalist. He ran a personal best of 10.42 in the 1983 season.Stefan Burkart
Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. He took his first win at the Swiss Indoor Championships in 1985, taking the national title in the

– he went on to win eight consecutive Swiss titles from 1985 to 1991.Swiss Indoor Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. He made his global debut at the

and was a semi-finalist after having set a personal best of 6.66 seconds in the first round. He competed in the event at the

1985 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1985 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, Piraeus, Attica, Greece, on 2 and 3 March 1985. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Participating nations * (11) * (5) * (16) * (5) * (23) ...

a few months later but did not progress beyond his first race. The highlights of his 1986 season were a 60 m lifetime best and Swiss record of 6.61 seconds and a semi-final placing in the event at the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were repres ...

due to an injury, but rebounded with a personal best of 10.39 seconds in 1989. That same year he won the 100 m "B" final section at the 1989 European Cup. He represented Switzerland at the

1990 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1990 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, on 3 and 4 March 1990. It was the last time that the event had been held annually and not biennially as it is now, as well as the last time that it was held ov ...

and the

1990 European Athletics Championships The 15th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 August to 2 September 1990 in Split, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. The host stadium was Stadion Poljud. It was the last participation of East Germany (which was already scheduled to be merged ...

and knocked a further hundredth off his 100 m best that year. He failed to make it out of the 60 m heats at the

1992 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1992 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in 1992 in Genoa, Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a pen ...

but had the best outdoor season of his career, setting a 100 m best and Swiss national record of 10.32 seconds as well as a

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...

best of 20.76 seconds. This earned him his Olympic debut at the age of 34 and he was a quarter-finalist in both the sprints.Stefan Burkart
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-01. He qualified for the

1993 World Championships in Athletics The 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Neckarstadium, Stuttgart, Germany between 13 and 22 August with the participation of 187 nations. Having or ...

the following year, but did not start due to injury. Burkart reached the quarter-finals of the 100 m at the

1994 European Athletics Championships The 16th European Athletics Championships were held from 7 August to 14 August 1994 in the Olympic Stadium of Helsinki, Finland. Men's results Complete results were published. Track 1986 , 1990 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , Field 1986 , 1990 , 19 ...

and matched that feat at the

. He also won the "C" final section at the 1994 European Cup. In 1996 he claimed his tenth Swiss title in the 60 m and his ninth title in the 100 m. He also qualified for his second Olympics at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He failed to make it past the first round but he became the oldest male athlete ever to compete in the

. After that season he largely retired from athletics, but made further appearances at the Swiss Indoor Championships, competing in 1999 and finally in 2002. He also won the 100 m in the over-40s division at the 2002

European Veterans Athletics Championships The European Masters Athletics Championships (formerly European Veterans Athletics Championships) are the biannual championships for masters athletics events held under the auspices of European Masters Athletics (formerly European Veterans Athleti ...

.European Veterans Championships (Men)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-02-01.

Bobsled and coaching career

Burkart was approached by Swiss bobsledder

Christian Meili Christian Meili (born 7 January 1963) is a Swiss bobsledder who has competed in the early 1990s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of fifth in the four-man event at Albertville in 1992. Meili is still active as an officia ...

and sprinter-turned-bobsledder

René Mangold René Mangold (born 7 December 1963 St. Galler Tagblatt, 16 February 2007: 26. Schweizer Hallen-Leichtathletik-Meisterschaften', p. 5. URL last accessed 2012-10-25.) is a Swiss track and field athlete and bobsledder. Track and field ...

in 1995 and they urged him to try out the winter sport. He competed in the Swiss team in 4-man bobsleigh at the

Bobsleigh European Championship The European Bobsleigh and Skeleton Championships are the main bobsleigh and skeleton championships in Europe. The first bobsleigh European Championships with two-man event was held in 1929 in Davos, Switzerland. However, as Bobsleigh World Champi ...

and

Bobsleigh World Cup The Bobsleigh World Cup is an annual bobsleigh competitions. It has taken place since the 1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene lan ...

from 1998 to 2002. Burkart soon began to focus on training younger bobsledders and athletes in the late 1990s with Fredi Steinmann. Among his training group were Olympic bobsleigh bronze medallists

and Martin Annen, as well as

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

specialist and Olympic medallist

. Burkart also coached

Daniel Dubois Daniel Dubois (born 6 September 1997) is a British professional boxer. He has held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) heavyweight title since 2024. Previously, he held the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight title ( Regular ver ...

and Andreas Baumann, both of whom represented Switzerland in the indoor 60 m sprint which had been Burkart's speciality.

Personal life

Brukart was married to Helen Barnett, who represented Great Britain at the 1984 Olympics and Switzerland at the 1992 Olympics. Their son Nishan Burkart is a

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and a youth international with the

Switzerland national under-20 football team The Switzerland national under-20 football team is the national under-20 football team of Switzerland and is controlled by Swiss Football Association. Competitive record FIFA U-20 World Cup Record Swiss national teams * Switzerland national f ...

. Stefan Burkart died in 2020 after a long illness.

Competition record

;National titles *60 metres (indoors): 1985–1992, 1995–1996 (10) *100 metres (outdoors): 1982, 1985–1990, 1995–1996 (9)

Personal bests

– 6.61 (1986) *

– 10.32 (1992) *

– 20.76 (1992)

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkart, Stefan 1957 births 2020 deaths Swiss male sprinters Swiss male bobsledders Swiss sports coaches Olympic athletes for Switzerland Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Switzerland 20th-century Swiss sportsmen