Bernhard Gruber (born August 12, 1982 in Schwarzach im Pongau ) is an Austrian Nordic combined athlete . He was Olympic champion with the team in 2010 and individual world champion on the large hill in 2015 .
Career
Bernhard Gruber comes from Bad Hofgastein in the Gastein Valley . As a member of the local winter sports club, he celebrated his first victories in the children's area in cross-country skiing. After the demolition of the youth ski jump (as the successor to the well-known Bilgeri ski jump ) in the Gastein Valley there was no longer any of the once many ski jumping hills, so Gruber started ski jumping on the Kindermattschanze in Bischofshofen in the summer of 1996 at the age of 14 . He transferred to the Ski Club Bischofshofen, whose trainers quickly recognized his talent for jumping and supported Gruber very much over the next few years. When Toni Innauer became aware of his talents in cross-country skiing and jumping, the famous former Austrian world-class ski jumper persuaded him to switch from special jumpers to combined athletes in 1998.
At the Junior World Championships in 2000 in Štrbské Pleso , Slovakia , he won the bronze medal with the Austrian relay. Two years later he started at the Junior World Championships in 2002 in Schonach in the Black Forest , where he finished seventh with the team.
Gruber has been competing in the Nordic Combined World Cup since 2003. At the Winter Universiade 2005 in Innsbruck and Seefeld in Tirol , he won the sprint and came second in the Gundersen competition. He celebrated his breakthrough in the World Cup in the 2006/07 season. At the last race in 2006, he came ninth in the top 10 for the first time. In January 2007 he achieved a top ranking for the first time with fifth place in Oberstdorf. In the 2007/08 season he established himself in the top of the world and reached three podium places until he celebrated his first World Cup victory in the sprint in Zakopane in February 2008 . The second victory followed in March 2008 in the Gundersen singles in Oslo . The third success in his career was on February 25, 2012, also in the Gundersen discipline in the Czech World Cup location Liberec . At the 2009 World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic, he was fifth with the Austrian relay. In the two Gundersen competitions on the normal and large hill he reached eleventh place each, while he was 22nd in the mass start race.
He celebrated his greatest successes to date at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver . After the Olympic victory in the Nordic Combined team competition, he surprisingly won the bronze medal two days later in the individual competition over 10 km after he was the first to go onto the cross-country ski trail after jumping from the large hill . At the 2011 World Championships in Oslo , Norway , he was able to win the world championship title with both Austrian relays (normal and large hill). At the 2013 World Championships in Fiemme , Italy , he won two silver medals in the Gundersen competition on the large hill and in the team sprint. He was also fifth in the team competition on the normal hill and 13th in the Gundersen race on the normal hill. With the Austrian relay, he won the bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and came fifth in the Gundersen competition on the large hill.
At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun 2015, he won gold in the individual competition. Here, too, he was already in the lead after jumping. With the team he was fifth on the normal hill, seventh in the team sprint and tenth in the Gundersen race on the normal hill. He started the 2015/16 World Cup season with two fourth places in Lillehammer and one second place in Chaux-Neuve . In the further course of the season he convinced with great consistency, especially in the second half, jumped and ran regularly in the top 10 and was able to add another individual victory over 10 km Gundersen to his Palmarès in Val di Fiemme .
Gruber (No. 39) in Ramsau 2016
After the start of the 2016/17 season went well, he was able to keep improving towards the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti in 2017 . In the Nordic Combined Triple, he finished third behind the two German Eric Frenzel and Johannes Rydzek . At the World Championships in Lathi he finished seventh on the normal hill and ninth on the large hill in the individual competitions. In the team competition, he formed the Austrian relay together with Mario Seidl , Philipp Orter and Paul Gerstgraser , which came third behind Germany and Norway. In the team sprint, he and Wilhelm Denifl missed another medal in fourth place and 0.5 seconds behind bronze.
After the 2017/18 Olympic season did not start optimally, he still qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang . In the two individual competitions on the normal and the large hill, he could only take 20th and 21st place respectively. In the team competition he formed the Austrian relay team with Wilhelm Denifl, Lukas Klapfer and Mario Seidl . As in the 2017 World Championships, they again won the bronze medal behind the German and Norwegian relays. At the first World Cup after the Olympic Winter Games, he and his partner Wilhelm Denifl won the combined team sprint in Lahti on March 3, 2018.
The 2018/19 World Cup season was characterized by some fluctuations in performance, so that after finishing seventh in Ramsau in mid-December, he was only able to place in the top 10 in Lahti at the beginning of February. Only because of the increase in Lahti was he nominated for the home World Championships in Seefeld , which Gruber himself had almost written off. At the peak of the season, Gruber finally presented himself in top form and after reaching tenth place on the large hill, he was able to win the silver medal on the normal hill behind Jarl Magnus Riiber . In addition, he won bronze in the team sprint together with Franz-Josef Rehrl and in the team competition together with Mario Seidl, Rehrl and Lukas Klapfer, making him the most successful ÖSV combined athlete at world championships with nine World Championship medals. He was tenth in the Gundersen competition on the large hill. On the final World Cup weekend in Schonach , he was even able to trump his World Cup performance with his seventh World Cup victory.
After Gruber entered the World Cup late due to gastroenteritis , he was never able to achieve the desired form in his competitions. When he was hit by a flu infection in February 2020, Gruber decided to end the 2019/20 season prematurely for health reasons : "You can't really get it worse, as much bad luck as I had this year with illness and infections." He was ranked 42nd. In mid-March 2020, Gruber underwent a cardiac catheter examination after persistent chest pain , during which a stent was successfully inserted.
successes
World cup
World Cup victories in individual
No. |
date |
place |
discipline
|
1.
|
February 24, 2008
|
Poland Zakopane
|
sprint
|
2.
|
March 8, 2008
|
Norway Oslo
|
Gundersen
|
3.
|
February 25, 2012
|
Czech Republic Liberec
|
Gundersen
|
4th
|
February 2, 2013
|
Russia Sochi
|
Gundersen
|
5.
|
January 30, 2015
|
Italy Val di Fiemme
|
Gundersen
|
6th
|
February 27, 2016
|
Italy Val di Fiemme
|
Gundersen
|
7th
|
16th March 2019
|
Germany Schonach
|
Gundersen
|
World Cup victories in the team
No. |
date |
place |
discipline
|
1.
|
December 2, 2012
|
Finland Kuusamo
|
Team sprint 1
|
2.
|
March 3, 2018
|
Finland Lahti
|
Team sprint 2
|
Grand Prix
Individual Grand Prix victories
No. |
date |
place |
discipline
|
1. |
July 21, 2012 |
Russia Sochi
|
Gundersen
|
2. |
August 26, 2012 |
Germany Oberwiesenthal
|
Gundersen
|
3. |
August 30, 2013 |
Germany Oberstdorf
|
Gundersen
|
Grand Prix victories in the team
B world cup
B-World Cup victories in individual
No. |
date |
place |
discipline
|
1. |
December 20, 2002 |
United States Park City
|
Gundersen
|
statistics
Placements at the Olympic Winter Games
Placements at world championships
World Cup placements
Grand Prix placements
Web links
Individual evidence
-
↑ 100 years of the Bad Hofgastein winter sports club. 1908-2008. Cross-country and combiners section. Page 121
-
↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nordicjumpworld.com
-
↑ Olympia: Third gold in Nordic combined - team relay wins. Focus , February 22, 2018, accessed March 6, 2018 .
-
↑ Gruber / Denifl won combined team sprint in Lahti (March 3, 2018)
-
↑ Michael Unverdorben: Bernhard Gruber had already given up the home World Cup. Salzburger Nachrichten , February 20, 2019, accessed on April 10, 2019 .
-
↑ Bernhard Gruber combined himself to World Cup silver. Salzburger Nachrichten , February 28, 2019, accessed on April 10, 2019 .
-
↑ Bernhard Gruber ends season prematurely. oesv.at (Austrian Ski Association), February 17, 2020, accessed on February 17, 2020 .
-
↑ Heart operation with Bernhard Gruber. oesv.at (Austrian Ski Association), March 18, 2020, accessed on March 18, 2020 .
1988: ( GER ) Müller , Pohl , Schwarz | 1992: ( JPN ) Mikata , Kōno , Ogiwara | 1994: ( JPN ) Kōno , Abe , Ogiwara | 1998: ( NOR ) Skard , Braaten , Vik , Lundberg | 2002: ( FIN ) Lajunen , Mantila , Tallus , Manninen | 2006: ( AUT ) M. Gruber , Bieler , Gottwald , Stecher | 2010: ( AUT ) B. Gruber , Kreiner , Gottwald , Stecher | 2014: ( NOR ) Moan , Klemetsen , Krog , Graabak | 2018: ( GER ) Geiger , Rießle , Frenzel , RydzekGermany Federal Republic Japan Japan Norway Finland Austria Austria Norway Germany
1982: Dotzauer , Schmieder , Winkler | 1984: Andersen , Bøgseth , Sandberg | 1985: Müller , Schwarz , Weinbuch | 1987: Weinbuch , Pohl , Müller | 1989: T. E. Elden , Bredesen , B. J. Elden | 1991: Csar , Ofner , Sulzenbacher | 1993: Kōno , Abe , K. Ogiwara | 1995: Abe , T. Ogiwara , K. Ogiwara , Kōno | 1997: Skard , Vik , Apeland , Lundberg | 1999: Manninen , Nurmela , Mantila , Lajunen | 2001: Braaten , Rotevatn , Vik , Hammer | 2003: M. Gruber , Denifl , Bieler , Gottwald | 2005: Tande , Klementsen , Moan , Hammer | 2007: Koivuranta , Ryynänen , Tallus , Manninen | 2009: Minato , Katō , Watabe , Kobayashi | 2011 large hill: Kreiner , B. Gruber , Gottwald , Stecher ;
Normal hill: Kreiner , B. Gruber , Gottwald , Stecher | 2013: Braud , Laheurte , Lacroix , Lamy Chappuis | 2015: Edelmann , Frenzel , Rießle , Rydzek | 2017: Kircheisen , Frenzel , Rießle , Rydzek | 2019: Bjørnstad , Schmid , Graabak , Riiber