Eric Hänni

Eric Hänni

Eric Hänni (left) at the 1964 Olympics
Personal information
Born	19 December 1938 (1938-12-19) (age 77) Delémont, Switzerland[1]
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Sport
Sport	Judo
Medal record Representing   Switzerland Olympics 1964 Tokyo -68 kg European Championships 1964 Berlin -68 kg

Eric Hänni in 2011

Eric Hänni (born 19 December 1938) is a retired Swiss judoka who competed between 1959 and 1974. In 1964 he won an Olympic silver medal and a European bronze medal in the lightweight category.^[2][3] During his career Hänni won seven individual national titles (1959, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1969–71) and took part in twelve European and three world championships.^[1]

His parents divorced before he was ten, and Hänni's lived with his uncle in Bern. He then moved to Canton of Jura where he worked as a mechanic. Besides competing in judo, he also acted as a referee, at the national (since 1965), European (since 1974) and world level (since 1985). In 1966 he started coaching judo, first in Zurich and between 1967 and 1972 at Nippon Bern.^[4] In 1972 he opened his own judo club in his native Delémont, which he ran until 1995. In parallel, he trained the national junior and senior teams and acted as vice-president of the Swiss Judo Association. In 2014, he became the first Swiss judoka to receive an honorary 9th dan.

Hänni is married and has two children. He is a fan motorcycle racing, in which he competed at the national level.^[1]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eric Hänni.