Balthasar Niederkofler

Balthasar Niederkofler
nation	Austria
birthday	November 10, 1906
place of birth	Zell am Ziller
date of death	April 11, 1989
Place of death	Gries on the burner
Career
society	SK Schwaz Customs Guard
Medal table
World Cup medals 0 × 0 × 1 ×
Nordic World Ski Championships bronze 1933 Innsbruck 4x10 km

Balthasar "Baldi" Niederkofler (born November 10, 1906 in Zell am Ziller , † April 11, 1989 in Gries am Brenner ) was an Austrian cross-country skier and ski sports official.

In the 1920s, Niederkofler embarked on a military career in which he found good training opportunities, and in 1927 he stood on the winners' podium for the first time in an FIS cross-country skiing competition in Bödele . He celebrated his only victory in an FIS competition in 1930 in Brixen im Thale . His greatest success as an active player was winning the bronze medal with the 4x10 kilometer relay at the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1933 . In addition to Niederkofler, who ran in third position, the team consisted of Hugo Gstrein , Hermann Gadner and Harald Paumgarten and ended up being more than eight minutes behind the dominant winners from Sweden. The gap to second place, which the Czechoslovak team took, was only 17 seconds. For 66 years, until 1999, this medal was the only one for Austria in cross-country skiing. In the individual over 18 kilometers, he finished 17th. After that, he rarely took part in major competitions and his career was ended for the time being with the outbreak of World War II .

After returning from French captivity in 1946, Niederkofler went to the customs station . Efforts to continue his sporting career were unsuccessful. After the end of his career, Niederkofler worked for the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV) and was involved in the organization of the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck . When planning the biathlon competition , he represented the ÖSV and was therefore part of the three-person advisory team. He was also the “shooting director” and was therefore responsible for carrying out this sub-discipline. In addition, he was Nordic sports supervisor in the Tyrolean Ski Association for many years.

literature

• Austrian Ski Association (publisher): Austrian Ski Stars from A – Z , Innsbruck 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , pp. 294f

Web link

• Official report of the IX. Olympic Winter Games Innsbruck 1964 on la84foundation.org. (PDF file; 21.13 MB)