Hansi Kinigadner

Hansi Kinigadner died on 8 October 2026 at the age of 70. His death was reported the same day by SPEEDWEEK.com, citing the family's death notice, which reads: "The fight of his life is over." His cause of death has not been made public, and the notice did not state where he died.

He is survived by his wife Katy, his daughter Kathrin and her family, and his siblings. In place of wreaths and flowers, the family has asked for donations to the Wings for Life foundation, with the reference "Hansi Kinigadner".

The farewell will take place on Saturday, 10 October 2026, in Uderns in the Zillertal. At 9:30 the mourners will accompany Hansi from the family home to the parish church, where the requiem mass will begin at 10:00. He will then be buried in the village cemetery.

Hans "Hansi" Kinigadner was born on 17 July 1956, the eldest of the three sons of Johann and Christl Kinigadner. The family lived in Uderns in the Zillertal valley of Tyrol, where they ran the bakery business "Erste Zillertaler Elektro Bäckerei" (EZEB). His mother and grandmother managed the business while his father, a keen motorsport enthusiast, looked after the racing ambitions of his sons.

Motorsport was in the family before Hansi was born. In 1953 Johann Kinigadner won a silver medal at the first Tyrolean Alpine Rally. As a boy, Hansi rode as a sidecar passenger in his father's ice races, which gave him his first taste of competition. At Christmas 1971, aged 15, he was given a KTM Penton 125cc enduro bike, and his own racing career began.

In the early 1970s Hansi led the way for the Kinigadner brothers in motocross, with Heinz and Klaus soon following. He became known on the Tyrolean scene for spectacular skijoring appearances in winter and motocross races in summer, and then made his name in races across Austria. The brothers raced for the family's EZEB team, and Heinz later said that his hardest rivals were always his two brothers.

In 1978 Hansi won the Austrian national motocross championship in the 250cc class on a Montesa, the family's first national title. He won the 250cc title again in 1980, riding a Kramer-Rotax. In 1983 he drew international attention with fifth place at the 500cc world championship round in Sittendorf on a Husqvarna.

His career ended abruptly on 14 October 1984 at the age of 28, when he crashed at an Austrian championship round in Höhnhart.

On 14 October 1984 Hansi Kinigadner fell heavily during a round of the Austrian motocross championship in Höhnhart, in the Innviertel region of Upper Austria. He suffered a severe spinal cord injury and used a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

The crash came only a few weeks after his younger brother Heinz had won his first 250cc motocross world championship for KTM. Heinz, who was standing beside the track, told DER SPIEGEL that the accident happened right in front of him and that all the joy of the title was suddenly gone. He did not think about racing for half a year. It was Hansi, he said, who insisted that he had to try to defend his title. Heinz went on to win the 250cc world championship again in 1985.

Hansi lived in Uderns in Tyrol and also spent time on Ibiza in Spain. He was married to Katy and had a daughter, Kathrin (also spelled Katrin), who has a family of her own.

Despite his paralysis, he never lost his passion for motorsport. He continued to follow motorcycle racing closely and was regularly seen at races and events in Austria and abroad.

His family endured several tragedies. His mother Christl and his grandmother were killed in a car crash in 1982 on the way to the German motocross world championship round. In 2003 his nephew Hannes, Heinz's son, was paralysed in a crash at a charity motocross race in Ohlsdorf near Gmunden. Heinz said in 2026 that Hansi had experienced just about every setback a person can have, yet had such a strong will to live and such a strong heart that he coped with everything.

The Kinigadner family's motorsport story spans two generations and more than 50 years. It began with Johann Kinigadner's silver medal at the first Tyrolean Alpine Rally in 1953. Hansi opened the brothers' motocross era in the early 1970s and won national titles in 1978 and 1980. Heinz won Austrian titles from 1979, then the 250cc world championship for KTM in 1984 and 1985, before moving into enduro and rally racing and later working as a sports manager for KTM. Klaus, the youngest, raced motocross and later Supermoto before retiring in 2004.

After Hannes Kinigadner's 2003 accident, Heinz and Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz established the Wings for Life foundation, which funds research into curing spinal cord injury. When Hansi died, his family asked for donations to Wings for Life in his name instead of flowers.

Austrian national motocross champion, 250cc class, 1978 (Montesa).

Austrian national motocross champion, 250cc class, 1980 (Kramer-Rotax).

Fifth place at the 500cc motocross world championship round in Sittendorf, Austria, 1983 (Husqvarna).

Hansi Kinigadner is remembered as the brother who started the Kinigadner motocross era, the first of the family to win an Austrian national title, and the rider whose strength after a life-changing injury inspired those around him. SPEEDWEEK.com described him as a member of a family whose name is closely linked with motocross and KTM, and whose history is marked by great success as well as hard blows of fate.

His family's request that mourners donate to Wings for Life links his memory to the search for a cure for spinal cord injury, the condition he lived with for 42 years.