Harriman Cup
The Harriman Cup was an alpine ski race in Sun Valley , Idaho , United States , that was held from 1937 to 1965. At that time it was one of the most important and demanding ski races in the United States and, in addition to the strongest North American ski racers, was also regularly attended by the best athletes from Europe .
history
In December 1936, the ski area was Sun Valley by W. Averell Harriman opened. He decided to hold a ski race based on the model of the Arlberg-Kandahar race in Europe in the form of a combination of downhill and slalom . The first race took place on March 13 and 14, 1937 under the name Sun Valley Open International Tournament on Boulder Mountain north of Sun Valley. 39 of 44 participants reached the finish line. The first winner was the American Dick Durrance . The race was later renamed the Harriman Challenge Cup , shortened to the Harriman Cup .
From 1938 there were also women's races at the Harriman Cup, which the American Grace Carter Lindley won in the first year. In the men's race, two Europeans were successful for the first time with the German Ulrich Beutter in the downhill and the Swiss Walter Prager in the slalom, but the actual win in the Harriman Cup, winning the combined classification, went to Dick Durrance for the second time. Two years later, Durrance was the first of only two racers to win the Harriman Cup for the third time for victory in the combination.
From 1939 the competitions were no longer held on Boulder Mountain, but on various slopes on Bald Mountain , the central mountain of the Sun Valley ski area. From this year onwards, some native Austrians joined the list of winners, who emigrated to the USA due to political circumstances and worked there as ski instructors. Among them Friedl Pfeifer , who succeeded Hans Hauser as the ski school director in Sun Valley in 1939 . The women's races were won by Swiss Erna Steuri in 1939 , while in 1940 the only 15-year-old American Marilyn Shaw became the youngest winner of the Harriman combined. In 1942 the women's races had to be canceled.
From 1943 to 1946 the event could not be held because of the Second World War . The winter sports facilities were closed and a US Navy hospital was housed in Sun Valley. When winter sports began again in December 1946, the Harriman Cup was held again. In the first years after the war several French won the race: in 1947 Georgette Thiollière won all three disciplines, in 1949 Henri Oreiller and Lucienne Schmith-Couttet did the same. 1950 saw a triple victory for 18-year-old American Andrea Mead . In 1953 she won the Downhill and Combined a second time.
After several victories by Canadian skiers (including Ernie McCulloch won the combinations in 1951 and 1952), there were a number of Austrian victories in the Harriman Cup in the 1950s, especially by Christian Pravda . He won downhill and combined in 1953 and in 1956 and 1959 in all three disciplines, making him the second after Dick Durrance to win the Harriman Cup for the combined victory three times. The departure of 1953 was marked by particularly bad weather. Heavy snowfall and large amounts of fresh snow caused many injuries. Anderl Molterer (1955) and Toni Sailer (1957) as well as Putzi Frandl (1959) and Marianne Jahn (1960) each won the Harriman combination once.
At the beginning of the 1960s, the Harriman Cup was again firmly in American hands with combined victories by Jimmy Heuga and Barbara Ferries (1961) and Bud Werner and Jean Saubert (1963). The last “classic” Harriman Cup in 1965 was won by the Austrian Karl Schranz and the French Marielle Goitschel . In 1975 and 1977 a combined competition under the name Harriman Cup was held on Bald Mountain, which this time consisted of a giant slalom and a slalom. The winners were Ingemar Stenmark (1975 and 1977) as well as Hanni Wenzel (1975) and Lise-Marie Morerod (1977). The individual races, but not the combined ranking, counted in both years for the World Cup introduced in 1967 .
Winners list
.svg){kind=small}
In the 1970s there were races in Sun Valley again under the name Harriman Cup, this time consisting of giant slalom and slalom:
| year | discipline | Men's | Ladies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Giant slalom |
 Ingemar Stenmark
|
 Lise-Marie Morerod
|
| slalom |
 Gustav Thöni
|
 Hanni Wenzel
|
|
| combination |
Ingemar Stenmark
|
Hanni Wenzel
|
|
| 1977 | Giant slalom |
Ingemar Stenmark
|
Lise-Marie Morerod
|
| slalom |
 Phil Mahre
|
 Perrine Pelen
|
|
| combination |
Ingemar Stenmark
|
Lise-Marie Morerod
|
literature
- Dick Dorworth: High Times at the Harriman. In: Skiing Heritage. Vol. 17, No. 1, March 2005, ISSN 1082-2895 , pp. 23–28 ( online at Google Books )
Individual evidence
- ^ Luanne Pfeifer and the Skiing Heritage Editorial Board: The One And Only Gretchen. In: Skiing Heritage. Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall 1994, p. 8 ( online at Google Books )
Current World Cup races : Kitzbühel: Hahnenkamm Races | Kranjska Gora: Vitranc Cup | Lake Louise | Levi: Lapland Races | Madonna di Campiglio: 3-Tre race | Maribor: Golden Fox | Sölden: World Cup Opening | Val-d'Isère: first snow criterion | Wengen: Lauberhorn race | Zagreb: Snow Queen Trophy | Different locations: Arlberg-Kandahar race
Former World Cup races: Bad Gastein: Silver Jug Races | Grindelwald: SDS race | Oberstaufen: Staufen Cup | Schruns / Tschagguns: gold key race
Race before or outside of the World Cup: Davos: Parsenn Derby | Grabs: Gamperney Derby | Sugar Bowl: Silver Belt | Sun Valley: Harriman Cup
Children's race: Italy: FIS Children Cup | Canada: Whistler Cup