Rüdiger Hänel

Rüdiger Hänel was a passionate hockey coach whose greatest success was winning the silver medal with the German women’s team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He came from a hockey-loving family. Both his father Horst (for the former German Democratic Republic) and his brother Uli (two-time Olympic silver medalist for the Federal Republic of Germany) played for their national teams. His daughter Nele, with whom he ran a hockey academy, and his son Ben were also excellent hockey players.

Rüdiger Hänel started working as a coach in 1976, first at the youth level but later as head coach of various German hockey clubs. As a long-standing coach and educator with the German Hockey Association, he also set up various schools for hockey coaches.