Prien (pps) The Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation for Germany, BSD, mourns its Honorary President Klaus Kotter. The long-time President of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, FIBT, passed away on Thursday, May 13, 2010, just two weeks prior to his 76th birthday. The funeral will be held next Wednesday with only the immediate family present.

Kotter, BSD President from 1986 to 2004, was the FIBT Vice President for Legal and Financial Affairs from 1976, and then elected President in 1980. Bobsleigh owes it mainly to Kotter’s efforts that the sport remained on the Olympic Programme. In 1994, Kotter lost the crucial vote for re-election as FIBT President to Canadian Robert F. Storey.

Klaus Kotter’s sporting engagement was multifarious. The self-employed tax consultant was a member of the of the Federal Committee for Legal, Social and Tax Affairs of the German Sports Federation, DSB, from 1972 to 1990, followed by four years (1990-1994) as DSB Treasurer. He has been a member of the Committee of the NOC for Germany since 1986. He also was the representative of the International Winter Sports Federations in the IOC Solidarity Commission from 1980 to 1984.

Klaus Kotter proved his determination and necessary toughness to achieve his aims in many positions – as DSB Treasurer in his efforts for a solid financial basis, in his fight for keeping all four German artificially-iced sliding tracks against the advice of the Federal Audit Office in 1999, but particularly when the IOC was debating dropping bobsleigh and luge from the Olympic Programme 25 years ago. Klaus Kotter fought like a lion for his sport recruiting new international member federations among them even Caribbean Jamaica for bobsleigh. He was awarded the Olympic Order for his merits on the occasion of the 1995 IOC Session in Budapest.