Rihards Kotāns started out as a track & field athlete, winning the Latvian SSR championships titles in the decathlon in 1977 and 1978 and the 1980 indoor heptathlon title. In 1981 Kotāns took up bobsledding and soon rose to be one of the top pushers in the Soviet Union. Kotāns won the Soviet title in 1984 in two-man event and competed at the 1982 World Championships, where he was 13th in the four-man event, and in four European Championships between 1981-84, where he had the following finishes: 1981 – 2-man, 14th; 4-man, 13th; 1982 – 2-man, 13th; 4-man, 11th; 1983 – 4-man, 14th; and 1984 – 4-man, 11th. Kotāns also competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics, placing 12th in the four-man. After finishing his sporting career he worked as a bobsleigh and skeleton coach in Sigulda. He was also a coach of the 1994, 1998 and 2002 Latvian Olympic bobsleigh teams and the Latvian national junior bobsleigh team. Kotāns also worked as a coach with the Latvian national skeleton team and was a bobsleigh referee at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Soviet Union
Latvia