Robert Dill-Bundi has passed away. As his son confirmed to the Keystone-SDA news agency, the Valais Olympic track cycling champion passed away shortly before his 66th birthday.
Robert Dill-Bundi experienced his sporting finest hour at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, when he won the gold medal in the 4000 m individual pursuit. The then 21-year-old subsequently caused controversy after he kissed the track and was accused of sympathizing with the Soviet Union as a result.
He was called a traitor to his country and a communist pig; a Westerner who sympathized with the Soviets. Despite this, he was named Swiss Sportsman of the Year in 1980. To this day, Dill-Bundi is the only Swiss track cyclist to have won Olympic gold. On the track, he became world champion in the keirin in Barcelona in 1984. On the road, he won a stage of the Giro d'Italia in 1982 and the prologue of the Tour de Romandie the following year. In the final years of his career, however, his successes failed to materialize and he retired from top-level sport in 1988.
Since then, Dill-Bundi has suffered numerous strokes of fate. In 1999, doctors diagnosed him with a brain tumor. Several operations, chemotherapy and risky electrotherapy later, he was considered cured in 2010. After a failed new start in Cuba, Dill-Bundi most recently lived back in his native Valais. He is survived by three adult children.
SDA
