Andreas Ostler

Who was Andreas Ostler?

Andreas "Anderl" Ostler was a German bobsledder who competed in the early 1950s.

As a teenager during the 1936 Winter Olympics in his home town, Anderl Ostler and future teammates at de:Sportclub Riessersee became interested in winter sports. The games in 1940 and 1944 were canceled during the war, and Germany was not invited to the 1948 Winter Olympics.

At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, he became the first person to steer both the two-man and four-man bob to gold medals at the same Winter Olympics, together with Lorenz Nieberl pushing and braking. They were wearing American football helmets. Their 17-year old two-man bob, officially named "Deutschland I", had written "Cognac" on its front.

When both German 4-man-teams, rivals since their pre-war youth at de:Sportclub Riessersee in Garmisch, only qualified in mid-field, they decided to join forces. With Friedrich Kuhn and Franz Kemser, the heaviest members of the other team that withdrew, bob "Deutschland I" won all four heats. The Gold medalists had a combined weight of 472 kg, or an average of 118 kg per person. The rules were soon altered, introducing a limit of 400 kg.