Hans Rinn

Hans Rinn won the doubles gold medal at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics together with Norbert Hahn and also won a bronze medal in the singles. Four years later he and Hahn repeated their gold medal performance. Rinn also became European Champion in the singles in 1973-74, and 1979 and in 1973, 1975, 1978 and 1980 in doubles. He also won World Championships in 1973 and 1977 in the singles and 1975 and 1977 in the doubles. In total Rinn won five more silver (1974, 2x1977, 1978, 1979) and one bronze (1975) at the European Championships, and three silvers (1973, 1974, 1979) and one bronze (1978) at the World Championships. In 1976 he became an honorary citizen of his home town of Langenwiesen and in 1980 of Ilmenau.

After German re-unification he made his living building universal sports tools such as water slides for swimming pools. He is still active as a luging judge for the International Luge Federation (FIL). Rinn was inducted into the FIL Hall of Fame in 2005.