On the way to his greatest triumph: Robert Dill-Bundi 1980 in Moscow. Image: KEYSTONE
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Olympic hero Dill-Bundi lives 40 years later from the fate of the IV
Robert Dill-Bundi won the gold medal in the individual pursuit at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. After his exploit, the Valais track cyclist caused a lot of turmoil with a kiss.
The scene still has a firm place in the history of cycling: Robert Dill-Bundi waves to the audience on his winning lap, takes off his bike and kisses the larch wood track in Moscow’s Krylatskoye Stadium. Many understand differently what the 21-year-old from Sierre, after his triumph in the pursuit race over 4000 meters, is a spontaneous, emotion-driven gesture. Because the 1980 Summer Games were not ordinary.
The political tensions in the course of the Cold War also affected sport. Numerous western nations, led by the United States, reacted to the invasion of Soviet troops in Afghanistan with an Olympic boycott. Other countries such as Switzerland let the respective national sports associations decide whether to send athletes to the capital of the USSR or not. Switzerland finally arrived without gymnasts, marksmen, fencers and riders and returned after two full weeks with two gold medals from Dill-Bundi and Zurich judoka Jürg «Tschug» Röthlisberger in their luggage.
The kiss that made the racing driver famous. Image: srg
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However, returning to Switzerland was not only a joy for Dill-Bundi. His cheer gesture, which had caused a stir worldwide, was not appreciated in many places. He was insulted as a traitor and a Communist pig; as a westerner who sympathized with the Soviets. Nevertheless, he was named Swiss Sportsman of the Year in 1980.
«I forgot every pain»
Almost 40 years later, Robert Dill-Bundi still remembers the historical scene well. “The train and I, that was love, that’s why I kissed her,” he says over the phone with the Keystone-SDA news agency. At that moment he was not aware of the political dimension of his actions. For him, the focus was primarily on the joy of victory after everything had gone wrong at the Montreal Summer Games four years earlier.
At that time, Dill-Bundi started as a 17-year-old junior world champion, but broke under great pressure and only turned 14. «I didn’t want to experience that again. So I had to work on my psyche. » His recipe was called sophrology, a kind of relaxation technique that is supposed to alleviate physical and mental complaints. «In Moscow I was so ready that I forgot all the pain and was able to concentrate fully on the race. I wanted to ‘kill’ my opponents, which scared them so much, ”said Dill-Bundi, who had lost over seven seconds to Frenchman Alain Bondue in the final.
Dill-Bundi’s triumph in the final.
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He didn’t care that the Olympic anthem was played instead of the Swiss during the medal presentation. «It was part of the deal. Our discipline was the only one that raised the Olympic flag three times, ”he recalls.
Unusual choice of materials
In addition to his kiss on the web, Dill-Bundi also surprised with his choice of materials in Moscow. He was the first athlete to wear a one-piece racing suit. His aerodynamic helmet, which can now be admired in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, was given to him by an already eliminated Czech competitor.
At the top: Dill-Bundi with the lady of honor and the third-placed Danish Hans-Henrik Örsted. Image: KEYSTONE
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To date, Dill-Bundi is the only Swiss track cyclist to have won Olympic gold. Dill-Bundi said that he didn’t have a golden career after his Olympic victory. As outstanding as he was as an amateur, he struggled as a professional afterwards. On the track he was still world champion in Keirin in Barcelona in 1984. On the street he won a stage of the Giro d’Italia in 1982 and the prologue of the Tour de Romandie the following year. In the last years of his career, however, the successes failed to materialize, so he retired from top-class sport in 1988.
Cancer diagnosis and financial ruin
Since then, Dill-Bundi has suffered numerous strokes of fate. In 1999, the doctors diagnosed him with a brain tumor. Several surgeries, chemotherapy and risky electrotherapy later, he was cured in 2010. “You cut out a third of my brain,” explains Dill-Bundi. Speaking is therefore no longer as easy for him as before.
Dill Bundi after Operation 2010. Image: KEYSTONE
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However, the 1980 Olympic hero has not been spared any health or private setbacks in the past ten years. A new start in Cuba with his second wife ended in financial ruin in 2013. In the same year he caused a serious car accident with seven injuries in Aigle because he had lost consciousness while driving. A heart attack and open heart surgery followed.
Today the 61-year-old, who has three adult children from his first marriage, lives in a modest two-room apartment in the Valais village of Savièse. He receives an IV pension and is dependent on medication all his life. “I had the Olympic victory in my own hands, but I am at the mercy of the disease,” he says. But that’s not why Robert Dill-Bundi lost his fighting spirit.
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