Josef “Pepi” Bader is a legend in German bobsledding – not least because of an Olympic victory that remains unforgettable precisely because it lasted only two hours. Today marks the fourth anniversary of his death.
Josef “Pepi” Bader was an Olympic champion for only two hours. During the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, he and his pilot Horst Floth crossed the finish line at exactly the same time as the Italian bobsledders Eugenio Monti and Luciano De Paolis.
Then came the shock: After two hours of deliberation, the competition was decided against the Germans when the jury applied the better run time in the final round to the Italians. A bitter moment.
Bader was born in 1941 in Grainau and passed away on October 30, 2021, at the age of 80 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. As an outstanding figure in German bobsledding, he will continue to be remembered by fans.
He was not only known for his athletic achievements but also for his humorous nature, which helped him in many situations.
For instance, Bader once ended up completely naked in Japanese newspapers when he squeezed into a tiny Japanese bathtub during the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo. Because the Japanese preferred to bathe sitting down at that time, the tub in Bader’s room in the Olympic Village was correspondingly small.
However, this didn’t stop the 1.88-meter-tall Upper Bavarian from taking a rejuvenating dip – which was captured by a photographer.
“It was like sitting in a bobsled,” he laughed about the pictures that went around the world at the time. A week later, Bader won Olympic silver in a similar pose.
Gold at those same Olympics in Japan went to two other Germans. The highlight of a rivalry within the German bobsled team that shaped Bader’s career.
While the Ohlstadt duo of Wolfgang Zimmerer and Peter Utzschneider dominated the sport in this country, brakeman Bader and his pilot Horst Floth mostly remained in the role of challengers.
The competition, however, brought not only tensions but also friendships. “Pepi was a fine sportsman and one of the best brakemen in the world,” Zimmerer recalled in 2021 after Bader’s death.
Despite all rivalry, the relationship between the athletes was characterized by respect – and by success. At the 1970 World Championships in St. Moritz, Zimmerer and Bader won silver in the four-man bobsled because the regular brakeman Stefan Gaisreiter dropped out at short notice – and was excellently replaced by Bader.
In addition to his athletic successes, love was another central aspect of his life. After the death of his first wife Gabriele in 2008, Bader reconnected with his childhood sweetheart Anneliese at the age of 67.
The two had met in school, and it didn’t take long before they became inseparable again. “We had completely the same interests, whether in sports or culture,” Anneliese told the Münchner Merkur. In 2012, “Pepi” married her.
In the late autumn of his life, Bader now watched many bobsled races from his home sofa alongside Anneliese. “That’s been in us since childhood days and doesn’t go away anymore,” said Anneliese before Bader’s 80th birthday.
This fell in May 2021 right in the middle of the pandemic. Instead of the big celebration that “Pepi” had wished for, the day took place in the closest family circle.