Gustav Weder got his start in bobsled in 1984, after having dabbled in track and field’s shot put and discus throw. He attended his first Winter Olympics in 1988 and finished an impressive fourth with Donat Acklin. He got his first taste of major international success at the 1989 World Championships, where he won the four-man event alongside Bruno Gerber, Curdin Morell, and Lorenz Schindelholz, in addition to being the runner-up in the two-man alongside Gerber. The following year his crews were victorious in both events (Weder was allowed to compete despite being caught chipping a “bad lump” of ice off one of the track’s corners), but slid to second place in 1991, with Morell replacing Gerber in the two-man. At the 1992 Winter Olympics, Weder teamed up with Acklin once more and won the two-man event, while coming in third in the four-man with Acklin, Morell, and Schindelholz. Acklin and Weder saw continued success at the 1993 World Championships, where they took silver in the two-man and gold in the four-man (alongside Kurt Meier and Domenico Semeraro), and then defended their Olympic crown in the two-man in 1994, 0.05 seconds ahead of Acklin’s brother Guido and compatriot Reto Götschi. They were also runners-up in the four-man with Meier and Semeraro at those Games.
Weder retired from active competition after his second Olympics. He graduated from ETH Zurich with a bachelor’s degree in 1985 and the University of Ottawa in 1997 with a master’s in business administration and sport psychology. He earned his Ph.D. in social sciences in 2002 from the University of Göttingen and has since worked as the head of human resources at several large Swiss companies. He also worked as a physical education teacher over the course of his career.
Switzerland