Helene Thurner

Helene "Leni" Thurner-Bullock (born August 12, 1938 in Zams ) is a former Austrian luge athlete .

Leni Thurner originally started for the Schönwies toboggan club and later for the Imst toboggan club . In 1957 she took part in the traditional Tyrolean championships for the first time and came in fifth, a year later she won the event for the first time. Thurner first took part in the Luge World Championships in 1959 in Villard-de-Lans and finished fifth when Elly Liebers won . In 1960 she became Austrian champion for the first time in Weißenbach near Liezen . At the 1960 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , she narrowly missed a first international medal in fourth place, which she then won at the 1961 Luge World Championships in Girenbad behind Elisabeth Nagele and Marianne Winkler with the bronze medal. 1962 followed in Bad Aussee winning the second national championship. At the European Luge Championships in Liezen in 1962 , she won the silver medal behind Irene Pawełczyk . The Pole Pawełczyk benefited from a protest, due to which she was allowed to ride again despite a fall in the fourth run and thus pushed Thurner to second place. Thurner fell at the 1962 World Cup in Krynica-Zdrój . She also won silver at the 1963 World Cup in Imst , where only Ilse Geisler was faster. The greatest international success was winning the bronze medal behind Ortrun Enderlein and Geisler at the 1964 Olympic Games in Innsbruck . This made her the first Austrian to win an Olympic luge medal. In 1965 he won the Austrian championship again and won the Tyrolean championship. The 1965 World Cup in Davos she finished in fifth place finisher after she was after the second run still in the lead. Thurner won the last international medal with bronze behind Enderlein and Petra Tierlich at the 1967 World Championships in Hammarstrand . In 1968 she started again at the Olympic Games and finished ninth. In addition, she was Austrian champion for the seventh time in 1968. She won the Tyrolean championship six times. After the games, she ended her active career.

In 1967 Thurner was a co-founder of the Mils sports club and worked there as a section leader until 2000. From 1992 to 2004 she was Deputy Mayor of the municipality of Mils near Imst and in 2000 became the village chronicler of the place. In 1996 Thurner was awarded the Golden Sign of Merit of the Republic of Austria and in 2007 the Cross of Merit of the State of Tyrol . She has been an honorary citizen of her hometown Mils since 2008.

Web links

• CV of Helene Thurner
• Helene Thurner in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )