Rio de Janeiro (dpa) – German canoeing coach Stefan Henze suffered life-threatening injuries in a serious traffic accident in Rio de Janeiro, the country’s Olympic sports confederation (DOSB) said Friday. Henze, who was in the vehicle along with sports scientist Cristian Katini, 35, was transferred to a local hospital for emergency brain surgery.
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A spokeswoman for the German team told Press Association Sport on Friday evening that they had no new information about Henze’s condition, which had earlier been described by the hospital as “critical”. Dr. Bernd Wolfarth is in constant contact with the attending physicians. The team says Kaeding was “slightly injured” and has been released from the hospital.
Henze used to compete himself, winning silver at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
“After realising the extent of his injuries (Henze) was taken to a clinic with a special neurosurgical department and underwent emergency surgery”, the DOSB said.
Security and traffic have been a main concern for teams at the Games and several official Olympic buses have been involved in road accidents.
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A bus carrying journalists to one of the Olympic venues scraped another bus in an earlier crash but no-one was hurt.
