Lascau, who is orginally from Romania, claimed gold at the 1991 World Championships in Barcelona, beating Belgium's Johan Laats to the prize, and competed for Germany in the Olympic Games, held in the same city, the following year.

Since retirement, the 42-year-old Lascau has worked with the German Judo Federation as its vice-president and held the same position for the European Judo Union.

His new role with British Judo will see him taking charge of its high performance programme.

British Judo's chairman Densign White said: "Daniel is a world class judo technical expert and leader and we are delighted to secure his services in this critical period of preparation for the London Olympics.

"We have a number of athletes who can deliver Olympic medals with the right preparation - and I believe Daniel is the right person to take on that challenge."

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