Willi Pürstl

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Willi Pürstl Ski jumping
1976 press photo Willi Puerstl

1976 press photo Willi Puerstl

nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday January 10, 1955
place of birth Schöder ,  AustriaAustriaAustria 
Career
society WSV Murau
WSV Natters
National squad since 1972
status resigned
End of career 1981
Ski jumping world cup / A class jumping
 Debut in the World Cup 4th January 1980
 Overall World Cup 29th ( 1979/80 )
 Four Hills Tournament 01. ( 1974/75 )
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Single jump 8th 5 1
 

Willi Pürstl (born January 10, 1955 in Schöder , Styria ) is a former Austrian ski jumper and ski jumping trainer. His greatest success was winning the Four Hills Tournament 1974/75 . Today he works and lives in Ottawa , Canada .

Life

Athletic career

Pürstl started ski jumping when he was six. His father, the community secretary Johann Pürstl and his brother Rudolf were also active as ski jumpers. Pürstl started his ski jumping career on used skis from the successful ski jumper Willi Egger, also from Schöder . Pürstl quickly showed first successes and finally came to the Stams ski school . At the beginning of the 1970s he made the leap to the Austrian national team. Initially, however, there were no major successes. At his first start at the Four Hills Tournament in 1972/73 , he ended up only finishing 67th overall. Also in the Four Hills Tournament 1973/74 he was 91st far behind expectations. A few weeks ago Pürstl secured his first and only national ski jumping title at the state championships.

In November 1974, Pürstl fell during a training jump, breaking a shoulder blade. After he wore a complete upper body cast, his participation in the Four Hills Tournament 1974/75 was at risk. However, after removing the plaster of paris, Pürstl managed to get fit within a few days and to qualify for the first ski jumping competition. Surprisingly, he celebrated a clear win of the day on the Schattenbergschanze in Oberstdorf . In the following competitions, without exception, Karl Schnabl won , but he only jumped to 35th place in the opening competition. This means that Pürstl was only the second Austrian after Sepp Bradl in 1953 to secure the overall ranking of the Four Hills Tournament.

This tour victory, he became the protagonists of the successful Austrian ski jumping team of the 1970s, under coach Baldur Preiml also jumpers like Toni Innauer , Karl Schnabl , Alois Lipburger , Edi Federer , Hans Millonig , Hans Wallner , Alfred Pungg , Rupert Gürtler and Walter Schwabl brought forth . Together with the older, successful jumpers Rudi Wanner and Reinhold Bachler , this young team made Austria the leading ski jumping nation in 1975.

When jumping from the Bergiselschanze , the actually safe Pürstl fell on the take-off table, hit hard, lost consciousness and hurled along the concrete reinforcement on the visitor stands and broke through several distance boards. Surprisingly, however, he only suffered a concussion and a heel injury.

Pürstl was qualified for the 1976 Winter Olympics, but before the Games he used a new bond system. Jumpers and supervisors from Germany protested against this. Pürstl could not cope with the switch to the conventional material and was then removed from the team for Innsbruck .

With the first season 1979/80 he was also part of the first squad in the newly created Ski Jumping World Cup . Pürstl jumped to fifth place twice on the Dauphiné in Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte and on the Gross-Titlis-Schanze in Engelberg . In the end he finished 29th in the overall World Cup ranking. The following year he started again at the Four Hills Tournament 1980/81 , but did not get beyond the 70th place overall. A little later, at the age of only 26, he ended his active ski jumping career.

Coaching career

Even after the end of his active career, Pürstl remained loyal to ski jumping and took over the Spanish national team for three years. After moving to Canada , he became the head coach of the team there, where he achieved success with Horst Bulau and Steve Collins, among others . As a result, Pürstl also received job offers for coaching positions in Italy and the United States . However, he refused and stayed in Canada after completing his coaching job.

journalist

Pürstl emigrated to Canada in 1988 and took Canadian citizenship. After completing a short training course in television there, he got his first job as a reporter and reported on the Yugoslav wars and from Miami . At times he worked as a news producer (head of a news format) at the Canadian television channel CHUM News Service in the Parliament of Ottawa, where he mainly reported on domestic politics. In addition to this job, he built up his own production company Skyfly Productions over time, where he has been working at Chum TV since the end. Pürstl was the official cameraman with Queen Elisabeth II and her family. He also worked as a producer, cameraman and editor for Big North Media.

successes

World Cup placements

season space Points
1979/80 29 35

Four Hills Tournament placements

season space Points
1972/73 067. 652.5
1973/74 091. 383.2
1974/75 001. 879.0
1975/76 036. 725.3
1976/77 045. 663.1
1977/78 071. 289.9
1978/79 079. 273.5
1979/80 105. 182.7
1980/81 070. 293.6

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Josef Metzger: The last hour strikes a monument of sport . In: The world . January 5, 2001. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ Werner Herzog: Growing beyond your own fear of death . In: Der Spiegel . 12/1986, March 17, 1986. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  3. ↑ The eagle fledged . Sportunion Schöder. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ Our Production Team - “The Story Tellers” . Big North Media. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Pürstl, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski jumper and ski jumping trainer
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Schöder , Styria , Austria