Pierre Lueders

{{Short description|Canadian bobsledder (born 1970)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use Canadian English|date=June 2012}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = Pierre Lueders | image = Lueders.jpg | image_size =  | caption = Lueders at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin | birth_name = | fullname = Pierre Lueders | nickname = | nationality = {{flagicon|CAN}} Canadian | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1970|9|26|df=y}} | birth_place = Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | death_date = | death_place = | height = {{height|m=1.84|precision=0}} | weight = {{convert|101|kg|lb|abbr=on}} | website = | country = {{CAN}} | sport = 25px|alt=|link= Bobsleigh | bobsled name = | club = | team = | turnedpro = | coach = | retired = 2010 | coaching = | worlds = | regionals = | nationals = | olympics = 25px {{gold1}}{{silver2}} | paralympics = | highestranking = | pb = | medaltemplates = {{MedalSport | Men's Bobsleigh }} {{MedalCountry | {{CAN}} }} {{MedalOlympic}} {{MedalGold | 1998 Nagano | Two-man }} {{MedalSilver | 2006 Turin | Two-man }} {{MedalCompetition | World Championships }} {{MedalGold | 2004 Königssee | Two-man }} {{MedalGold | 2005 Calgary | Two-man }} {{MedalSilver | 1995 Winterberg | Two-man }} {{MedalSilver | 1996 Calgary | Two-man }} {{MedalSilver | 2003 Lake Placid | Two-man }} {{MedalSilver | 2007 St. Moritz | Four-man }} {{MedalBronze | 1999 Cortina d'Ampezzo | Four-man }} {{MedalBronze | 2005 Calgary | Four-man }} }}

'''Pierre Fritz Lueders''' (born 26 September 1970) is a Canadian Olympic, world and World Cup champion bobsledder who competed from 1990 to 2010. He piloted both two-man and four-man bobsleigh, retiring after the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was named to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/sports/canadian-sports-hall-adds-lueders-niedermayer-others-1.1164265 |title=Canadian Sports Hall adds Lueders, Niedermayer, others |date=19 April 2012 |publisher=CBC Sports}}</ref>

==Biography== Lueders grew up in Edmonton and went to Winterburn School for elementary and junior high. He attended Jasper Place High School for grades 10 through 12.

===Competitive career=== Originally a decathlete, in 1989 he switched to bobsleigh on the advice of a cousin who was a sportswriter in what was then East Germany, who suggested his build was better suited to the latter sport. Beginning as a brakeman and progressing rapidly, he became a pilot by 1991 and in 1992 won the first World Cup race he entered.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/events/1998/nagano/sipreview/bobsled.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010211192753/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/events/1998/nagano/sipreview/bobsled.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 February 2001 |title=1998 Nagano Olympics [Preview] – Pierre Lueders |date=4 February 1998 |publisher=Sports Illustrated |author=Michael Farber}}</ref>

A five-time Olympian, Lueders is the most decorated slider in Canadian history. He was the pilot of the Canadian two-man bobsleigh (teamed with Dave MacEachern) that won the gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics (shared with the Italian duo of Günther Huber and Antonio Tartaglia). This was only Canada's second-ever medal in bobsleigh, and the first since Vic Emery led his four-man crew to victory in 1964. Lueders and MacEachern ended their partnership shortly after the 1998 Games, with MacEachern attempting to make the transition to competing as a pilot in his own right: Lueders subsequently teamed up with Ken Leblanc and Giulio Zardo.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Snyder |first=Lorraine|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |title=Pierre Lueders |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pierre-lueders |access-date=13 February 2019|date=22 February 2018}}</ref> At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Lueders placed a disappointing fifth-place finish in two-man, and ninth in four-man, causing him to take the 2002–03 season off in four-man. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, in the two-man event, he and his brakeman Lascelles Brown won silver despite having to contend with heavy snowfall. In the four-man event, Pierre and his brakeman Ken Kotyk, Morgan Alexander, and Lascelles Brown placed 4th.

Lueders also won eight medals at the FIBT World Championships with two golds (Two-man: 2004, 2005), four silvers (Two-man: 1995, 1996, 2003; Four-man: 2007), and two bronzes (Four-man: 1999, 2005).

In the Bobsleigh World Cup, Lueders won the combined men's event four times (1993-4, 1994–5, 1997–8, 2005-6), the two-man event a record six times (1993-4, 1994–5, 1996–7, 1997–8, 2002–3, 2005-6), and the four-man event once (1994-5). Pierre Lueders has won 88 career medals in the Bobsleigh World Cup.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.olympic.ca/en/news/lueders-leads-canada-bobsleigh-world-cup-season/ |title=Lueders Leads Canada into Bobsleigh World Cup Season |date=18 November 2008 |publisher=Canadian Olympic Committee |first=Jeff |last=Jurmain |access-date=4 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313050218/http://www.olympic.ca/en/news/lueders-leads-canada-bobsleigh-world-cup-season/ |archive-date=13 March 2010 }}</ref>

Lueders and his brakeman Justin Kripps made the first run down the Whistler Sliding Centre, a facility built for the 2010 Winter Olympics, on 19 December 2007. Turn 7 at the Sliding Centre, "Lueders Loop", is named in his honor after he crashed out his sled during the track's homologation in March 2008, his first crash since the 2001 Goodwill Games.

In 2010, he finished 5th in the two-man bobsleigh race. He finish 5th in the four-man bobsleigh.

===Coaching career=== Lueders retired after the Vancouver Games and was named as a national bobsleigh team development coach. He left the job in May 2012, saying he wanted a break from the sport after 22 years as an athlete and coach.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/pierre-lueders-leaves-national-bobsled-team-1.1254277 |title=Pierre Lueders leaves national bobsled team |date=24 May 2012 |publisher=CBC News}}</ref>

However just over a week later Lueders was appointed head coach of the Russian national bobsleigh team<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/sports/pierre-lueders-joining-russian-bobsleigh-team-as-head-coach-1.1263648 |title=Pierre Lueders joining Russian bobsleigh team as head coach |last1=Perry |first1=Rod |date=4 June 2012 |website=cbc.ca |access-date=28 January 2014}}</ref> that would go on to win two gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. He left his position as Russia coach in June 2016.<ref name=linkedin>{{cite web |url=https://ca.linkedin.com/in/pierre-lueders-31739a11a |title=Pierre Lueders |author= |website=LinkedIn |access-date=9 November 2017 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In October 2017 he became caretaker head coach for the Republic of Korea's bobsleigh team ahead of their campaign on home ice at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibsf.org/en/news/8-bobsleigh/20231-olympic-champion-pierre-lueders-coach-in-korea |title=Olympic Champion Pierre Lueders coach in Korea |author= |date=12 October 2017 |website=International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation |access-date=9 November 2017}}</ref> In the four-man bobsleigh event, the Koreans consisting of Won Yun-jong (pilot), Seo Young-woo, Jun Jung-lin and Kim Dong-hyun tied with one of the German teams for the silver medal, the first Olympic medal won by an Asian bobsleigh team.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2018/02/26/0200000000AEN20180226006200315.html|title = Yonhap News Agency}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20180225000150|title = [PyeongChang 2018] S. Korea's 4-man bobsleigh team goes from underdog to silver medal winner|date = 25 February 2018}}</ref>

===Personal life=== As of 1997, Lueders resides in Calgary, Alberta. Outside of bobsledding, Lueders joined Sotheby's International Realty as an associate in Calgary in January 2017.<ref name=linkedin />

==Results==

===World Cup Championships=== {| class="wikitable sortable" align="center" |- ! align="center" | Rank ! Season ! Event |- | {{gold1}} | 1993–94 | Two-man |- | {{gold1}} | 1993–94 | Combined |- | {{gold1}} | 1994–95 | Two-man |- | {{gold1}} | 1994–95 | Four-man |- | {{gold1}} | 1994–95 | Combined |- | {{gold1}} | 1996–97 | Two-man |- | {{gold1}} | 1997–98 | Combined |- | {{gold1}} | 1997–98 | Two-man |- | {{gold1}} | 2002–03 | Two-man |- | {{gold1}} | 2005–06 | Combined |- | {{gold1}} | 2005–06 | Two-man |- | {{silver2}} | 1995–96 | Combined |- | {{silver2}} | 1995–96 | Two-man |- | {{silver2}} | 2001–02 | Two-man |- | {{silver2}} | 2003–04 | Combined |- | {{silver2}} | 2003–04 | Two-man |- | {{silver2}} | 2004–05 | Two-man |- | {{silver2}} | 2006–07 | Two-man |- | {{silver2}} | 2005-06 | Four-man |- | {{silver2}} | 2006–07 | Combined |- | {{bronze3}} | 1996–97 | Combined |- | {{bronze3}} | 1998–99 | Combined |- | {{bronze3}} | 1998–99 | Two-man |- | {{bronze3}} | 1999–00 | Combined |- | {{bronze3}} | 1999–00 | Four-man |- | {{bronze3}} | 2004–05 | Combined |- | {{bronze3}} | 2004–05 | Four-man |}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{IBSF profile|100077|Pierre Lueders}} * {{Olympics.com profile|pierre-lueders-1}} * {{SR/Olympics profile|lu/pierre-lueders-1}} * [http://sports123.com/bob/mo-2.html Bobsleigh two-man Olympic medalists 1932–56 and since 1964] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003134007/http://sports123.com/bob/mo-2.html |date=3 October 2018 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929091333/http://sports123.com/bob/mw-2.html Bobsleigh two-man world championship medalists since 1931] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071211002351/http://sports123.com/bob/mw-4.html Bobsleigh four-man world championship medalists since 1930] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070827100218/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=LUEDEPIE01 DatabaseOlympics.com profile] * [https://archive.today/20131117055757/http://www.fibt.com/en/news/latest-news/news-article/news/1616.html "Gibson, De-La-Hunty, Lueders named Canadian coaches"]. International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation. (1 July 2010 article accessed 2 July 2010.) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080409025403/http://sports123.com/bob/mwc-c.html List of combined men's bobsleigh World Cup champions: 1985–2007] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080409025356/http://sports123.com/bob/mwc-4.html List of four-man bobsleigh World Cup champions since 1985] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080409025349/http://sports123.com/bob/mwc-2.html List of two-man bobsleigh World Cup champions since 1985]

{{Footer Olympic Champions Bobsleigh Two-man}} {{Footer World Champions Bobsleigh Two-man}} {{Footer World Cup Champions Bobsleigh Men's Combined}} {{Footer World Cup Champions Bobsleigh Two-Man}} {{Footer World Cup Champions Bobsleigh Four-Man}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lueders, Pierre}} Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:Bobsledders at the 1994 Winter Olympics Category:Bobsledders at the 1998 Winter Olympics Category:Bobsledders at the 2002 Winter Olympics Category:Bobsledders at the 2006 Winter Olympics Category:Bobsledders at the 2010 Winter Olympics Category:Canadian male bobsledders Category:Canadian people of German descent Category:Canadian sports coaches Category:Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Category:Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Category:Olympic bobsledders for Canada Category:Olympic gold medalists for Canada Category:Olympic medalists in bobsleigh Category:Olympic silver medalists for Canada Category:Sportspeople from Edmonton