Eric Hänni

Swiss judoka (1938–2024)

エリック・ヘンニ

Born

19 December 1938, Delémont

Died

25 December 2024, Delémont

Citizenship

Switzerland

Sport

judo

Occupation

judoka

Height

172 cm (5 ft 8 in)

Eric Hänni (19 December 1938 – 25 December 2024) was a Swiss judoka who competed between 1959 and 1974. In 1964 he won an Olympic silver medal and a European bronze medal in the lightweight category. During his career Hänni won seven individual national titles (1959, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1969–71) and took part in twelve European and three World Championships.

Hänni's parents divorced before he was ten, and Hänni lived with his uncle in Bern. He then moved to Canton of Jura where he worked as a mechanic. Besides competing in judo, he also acted as a referee, at the national (since 1965), European (since 1974) and world level (since 1985). In 1966 he started coaching judo, first in Zurich and between 1967 and 1972 at Nippon Bern. In 1972 he opened his own judo club in his native Delémont, which he ran until 1995. In parallel, he trained the national junior and senior teams and acted as vice-president of the Swiss Judo Association. In 2014, he became the first Swiss judoka to receive an honorary 9th dan.

Competitions

External links

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q648874 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.