Former East German bobpilot Harald Czudaj won a four-man gold medal in 1994 with Karsten Brannasch, Olaf Hampel and brakeman Alexander Szelig. In 1990 he won two silver medals with the former GDR at the World Championships, adding two bronze medals for the reunified German team in 1991 and 1995 in the four-man. In 1992 and 1998 he won the four-man at the European Championships.
He then turned briefly to coaching and coached the Dutch women’s team in 2006 at the Torino Olympics. After reunification it was revealed that Czudaj had been working for the Stasi (National Security Service of former GDR) as a so-called IM (Informeller Mitarbeiter / Informal Employee). Czudaj later ran two large sports studios in Riesa and Coswig together with his former trainer Gerd Leopold. As a member of the supervisory board of Wintersport Altenberg GmbH and as Vice President of the BRC Riesa, he was still connected to bobsleigh and also dove senior races.