Vitus Lüönd

Vitus Lüönd

Vitus Lüönd in January 2008

nation

Switzerland

birthday

October 22, 1984

place of birth

train

size

182 cm

Weight

89 kg

Career

discipline

Downhill , Super-G , combination

society

SC Sattel-Hochstuckli

status

resigned

End of career

August 2015

Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup

Individual World Cup debut	March 6, 2009
Overall World Cup	113th ( 2011/12 )
Downhill World Cup	42nd (2011/12)
Combination World Cup	49th ( 2010/11 )

Vitus Lüönd (born October 22, 1984 in Zug ) is a former Swiss ski racer . He specialized in the fast downhill and super-G disciplines. He has been a trainer since his resignation in 2015.

biography

Lüönd grew up in Sattel and graduated from the Swiss Sports Middle School in Engelberg with the Matura . He contested his first FIS race in January 2000, but was only able to achieve a placement in the top ten four years later. The first appearance in the European Cup followed in January 2005. Here, too, he initially had no great success until he surprisingly finished second in the Super-G in Hinterstoder on January 10, 2008 and achieved his first podium result. At the end of the 2007/08 season he managed a third place in the Super-G of Les Orres . After a short injury break at the beginning of 2009, he reached podium again on January 28 in the two downhill runs from Les Orres.

Lüönd made his debut in the World Cup on March 6, 2009 in the downhill from Kvitfjell . A day later, he finished 27th in the second downhill run at the same location and thus won World Cup points for the first time. One week later he tore a cruciate ligament in his right knee in the giant slalom at the European Cup final in Crans-Montana on March 13th . During the European Cup season 2009/10 Lüönd achieved several top 10 results, including a third place in the downhill from Sarntal / Reinswald . He did not contest World Cup races this winter, only in the 2010/11 season he took part again. In the European Cup, he celebrated his only victory on January 12, 2011 in the downhill on Patscherkofel , with which he was third in the discipline ranking in the 2010/11 season . In the World Cup, the best results that winter were two 25th places in the Downhill and the Super Combined from Chamonix .

In the 2011/12 season Lüönd achieved the only top 20 placement in the World Cup when he finished 17th on the Downhill from Chamonix on February 3. Towards the end of winter he became Swiss downhill champion, but three weeks later, on April 11, 2012, he suffered a cruciate ligament rupture while training in Samnaun . He got back into racing the following winter, scoring twice in the World Cup and making a European Cup podium. In downhill training for the 2013 World Cup in Schladming , he suffered another cruciate ligament tear. Due to cartilage damage in his knee, he also had to end the 2013/14 season prematurely. The rehabilitation dragged on for a long time, which is why he announced his retirement from top-class sport in August 2015.

Immediately afterwards, Lüönd received an offer from Swiss-Ski to work as a trainer. In the 2015/16 season he initially looked after the European Cup drivers, and since the 2016/17 season he has been working as a World Cup assistant coach.