Bartholomäus Brötzner (Ringer, 1957)

Bartholomäus "Bartl" Brötzner (born February 20, 1957 in Wals-Siezenheim , Land Salzburg ) is a former Austrian wrestler .

Career

Bartl Brötzner comes from a Walser farming family and came to wrestling in 1967 through friends . The decisive factor that he decided on this sport was made by his two older brothers Franz and Hubert, who also started wrestling and the fact that the former training hall (Santnerhalle) of the AC Wals , which he won on January 1st, 1968 at the age of eleven years, was only about 200 meters from his parents' farm. His father was also a professional wrestler. At the age of 14 he won in 1971 fighting in the Greco-Roman style, for the first time the junior championship and in the same year the Austrian championship in the general class up to 48 kg. One reason for this surprising title win was, among other things, that there was traditionally little competition in this performance class because of the low weight for men. In the following years he specialized in freestyle due to his physical condition and his speed . One year after his first successes, Bartl Brötzner began working as an agricultural machine technician in 1972 , but remained loyal to the sport.

In 1975 he first took part in the Junior World Championship and a year later in the Junior European Championship . At the age of 22 he was one of Austria's best wrestlers in 1979 and won the Grand Prix of Italy , Greece and Austria. In the same year he won eighth place at the World Wrestling Championships in San Diego, USA, and thus qualified for the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow . There he was defeated, however, in the second round to the later Olympic welterweight champion (up to 74 kg) Valentin Rajtschew from Bulgaria. In 1983 Bartl Brötzner ended his international career, but remained active as a wrestler at AC Wals until 2001 with interruptions. During his career, in addition to several team championship titles with the Walser relay, he won eleven Austrian individual championship titles in the general class as well as five youth and four junior championship titles.

After he once benefited and learned from good coaches such as Josef Reischl and Franz Berger , Brötzner has been working as a youth coach at AC Wals since retiring from active sports. However, the focus of his life today is his wife Susanne, whom he married in 1985, and their children Thomas, Manfred and Katharina. Son Manfred (born May 3, 1986) is also a wrestler in the youth squad of AC Wals and has twice won the Austrian junior championship title.

successes

• Participation in the 1980 Olympic Games
• 11 × Austrian champion
• 5 × Austrian junior champion
• 4 × Austrian youth champion