Franz Nietlispach

Franz Nietlispach is a Swiss wheelchair athlete and handcyclist who also entered politics. Born on 2 April 1958, he competed at every Summer Paralympic Games from 1976 to 2008 and won fourteen gold, six silver and two bronze medals, nearly all of them in wheelchair athletics, with one bronze in hand-cycling at the 2004 Games. He began with table tennis at the 1976 and 1980 Games and later won the men's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon five times. He has held political office in Aargau and worked with a Polish partner on a lighter, more aerodynamic hand-cycle, selling carbon hand-cycles for a time.