René Spies is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 bobsledder who competed from 1991 to 2006. He won a bronze medal in the two-man event at the 2003 FIBT World Championships

FIBT World Championships 2003

The FIBT World Championships 2003 took place in Lake Placid, New York, United States , Winterberg, Germany , and Nagano, Japan . Lake Placid hosted the championship event for the eighth time, doing so previously in 1949, 1961, 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983, and 1997...

 in Lake Placid, New York

Lake Placid, New York

Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638....

.

Competing in two Winter Olympics, Spies earned his best finish of fifth in the four-man event at Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

 in 2006

2006 Winter Olympics

The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...

.

His best finish in the Bobsleigh World Cup was second three times (Combined: 2002-3, Two-man: 2000-1, 2002-3).

Spies retired from bobsleigh

Bobsleigh

Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled that are combined to calculate the final score....

 to become a television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 commentator in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, but attempted to return to the German national team for the 2007-08 season

2007-08 Bobsleigh World Cup

The 2007-08 Bobsleigh World Cup is a multi race tournament over a season for bobsleigh. The season started on 26 November 2007 and ended on 10 February 2008. The World Cup is organised by the FIBT who also run world cups and championships in skeleton....

 without success. He announced his retirement from competition on November 1, 2007 which was announced on the FIBT website.