Draft:Gunnar Prokop

Gunnar Prokop is a former Austrian former handball and athletics coach. He has previously been both president and coach for the handball club Hypo Niederösterreich and the Austrian women's national team.

Career
Prokop started his career at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, where he was the coach for Liese Sykora, who he married the year later in 1965.

Handball
In 1972 he switched to Women's handball, where he was involved in the creation of the Austrian club Hypo Niederösterreich. During the 1980s he was the coach for a European top club. His first international final was in 1987 where Hypo NÖ reached the EHF Cup. In 1989 he won the EHF Champions League for the first time. In total he would go on to win the tournament 8 times.

2009 controversy
On the 29th of October in a match against french Metz Handball Gunnar Prokop invaded the field and tackled Metz player Svetlana Ognjenović in order to stop a counterattack with 7 seconds remaining. The score was 27–27 at the time, and he thus prevented Metz from potentially winning the match.

In the immediate interviews afterwards, he did not apologize, instead calling the decision 'tactically smart'. 4 days later he did however reconsider and resigned as a coach. The day after, November 4, 2009, the European Handball Federation banned him from all handball related activities for three years, as well as for life for all political and administrative positions in handball and a fine of 45.000 euroes. The club Hypo Nö had points detracted and received a fine of 30.000 euroes. The fine was later changed to 10.000 euroes.

Private
He was married to Liese Prokop from 1965 until her death in 2006. Their daughter Karin Prokop became a top level handball player between 1977 and 1995.