Brigitte Totschnig

Brigitte Totschnig
nation	Austria
birthday	30th August 1954 (age 65)
place of birth	Radstadt , Austria
Career
discipline	Downhill , giant slalom , slalom , combination
society	SC Filzmoos
status	resigned
End of career	1979
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 1 × 0 × World championships 0 × 1 × 0 ×
winter Olympics silver Innsbruck 1976 Departure  Alpine World Ski Championships silver Innsbruck 1976 Departure
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
Individual World Cup debut 1969  Individual world cup victories 8th  Overall World Cup 4. ( 1976/77 )  Downhill World Cup 1. ( 1975/76 , 1976/77)  Giant Slalom World Cup 5. (1976/77)  Combination World Cup 4. (1975/76)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Departure 7th 1 3  Giant slalom 1 0 0  combination 0 1 0

Brigitte Totschnig (married Brigitte Habersatter , born August 30, 1954 in Radstadt , Salzburg ) is a former ski racer from Filzmoos , Austria . She won the silver medal in downhill skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics , eight World Cup races and twice the Downhill World Cup. She is married to the former ski jumper Walter Habersatter junior. Her sisters Sigrid and Andrea were also ski racers.

Career

Brigitte Totschnig came to the Filzmoos Ski Club at the age of six. As a teenager she was one of the best runners in her age group, but was set back several times due to injuries. In 1968 she became Austrian student champion in slalom, giant slalom and combined. In 1969, when she was 15, she competed in her first World Cup race . In the next few years she developed into a world-class runner, especially in the downhill. She won her first World Cup points on December 11, 1971 with ninth place in the downhill from Val-d'Isère and six days later she finished eighth in Sestriere . In January 1972 she reached fifth place on the downhill from Grindelwald , which secured her a ticket for the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo . There she took 15th place in the downhill.

In the 1972/73 season Totschnig achieved the first podium places in the World Cup with two third places in the downhill runs from Saalbach-Hinterglemm and Grindelwald. With another four top 10 results, she was sixth in the Downhill World Cup. In the next winter, however, no top placements were made. Her best World Cup result was seventh in the downhill from Zell am See , which is why she was not used at the 1974 World Cup. She started more and more in the European Cup , where she was second in the downhill classification and fifth in the overall standings with one win and two podium places. Also in the 1974/75 season she did not get any top places in the World Cup. She won her only World Cup points in Schruns , where she was sixth in the downhill and ninth in the combined.

In the 1975/76 season , their performance improved again significantly. On December 10th 1975 she celebrated her first World Cup victory in the downhill run from Aprica and after two second places in the downhill and the combination of Cortina d'Ampezzo , she achieved her second victory in the downhill run in Hasliberg on January 7th . This made her one of the big favorites at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck , which were also considered the World Cup. At the Axamer Lizum , however, Totschnig was relegated to second place by the German Rosi Mittermaier , who had not yet achieved a World Cup podium in the downhill this season. She also finished 16th in the giant slalom. With a victory in the last World Cup downhill of the season in Aspen , Totschnig secured his first victory in the Downhill World Cup and sixth place in the overall World Cup. After these successes, she was voted Austria's Sportswoman of the Year in 1976 .

At the beginning of the 1976/77 season Totschnig surprisingly managed to win the giant slalom in Courmayeur . As the season progressed, she was able to seamlessly follow up on the downhill successes of the previous year. In December she won both runs in Zell am See, in January in Crans-Montana and in March in Heavenly Valley . This enabled her to successfully defend her victory in the Downhill World Cup and improve to fourth in the overall World Cup. In the Giant Slalom World Cup, she finished fifth with the American Abigail Fisher, with her victory and three other top 10 placings . In the 1977/78 season Totschnig no longer achieved the results of previous years. Although she was able to classify herself regularly among the top ten, there were no podium places. Her best result was fourth place in the second downhill run from Pfronten on January 7th. As a result, she fell back to eighth place in the Downhill World Cup. At the 1978 World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , she was seventh in the downhill and 19th in the giant slalom. She only achieved greater success at national level when she became Austrian champion in downhill and combined in February 1978 .

In the 1978/79 season Totschnig came only once, with sixth place in the downhill from Schruns on January 26th, among the top ten. In the summer of 1979 she announced her resignation. At the end of the year Totschnig became a mother for the first time and another child followed three years later. As early as 1978 she began building the Aparthotel Olympia in Filzmoos , which she still manages today.

Sporting successes

winter Olympics

• Sapporo 1972 : 15th departure
• Innsbruck 1976 : 2nd descent, 16th giant slalom

World championships

• Sapporo 1972 : 15th departure
• Innsbruck 1976 : 2nd descent, 16th giant slalom
• Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1978 : 7th descent, 19th giant slalom

World Cup ratings

Brigitte Totschnig won the discipline classification twice in the downhill.

season	total		Departure		Giant slalom		combination
	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points
1971/72	27.	13	9.	13	-	-	-	-
1972/73	18th	46	6th	45	-	-	-	-
1973/74	24.	9	12.	9	-	-	-	-
1974/75	32.	8th	16.	6th	-	-	-	-
1975/76	6th	155	1.	106	9.	23	4th	26th
1976/77	4th	186	1.	115	5.	39	-	-
1977/78	21st	19th	8th.	24	-	-	-	-
1978/79	36.	41	10.	41	-	-	-	-

World Cup victories

Totschnig achieved a total of 13 podium places, including 8 wins:

date	place	country	discipline
December 10, 1975	Aprica	Italy	Departure
January 7, 1976	Hasliberg	Switzerland	Departure
March 12, 1976	Aspen	United States	Departure
December 11, 1976	Courmayeur	Italy	Giant slalom
20th December 1976	Zell am See	Austria	Departure
December 21, 1976	Zell am See	Austria	Departure
January 25, 1977	Crans-Montana	Switzerland	Departure
March 12, 1977	Heavenly Valley	United States	Departure

European Cup

• 1973/74 season : 5th overall ranking, 2nd downhill
• One victory (downhill in Steinach 1973/74), another four podium places

Austrian championships

• Austrian champion in downhill and combined in 1978

Awards

• Austria's sportswoman of the year 1976
• Silver Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria 1996

literature

• Austrian Ski Association (publisher): Austrian Ski Stars from A – Z , Innsbruck 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , pp. 132f

Web links

• Brigitte Totschnig in the database of the International Ski Association (English)
• Brigitte Totschnig in the database of Ski-DB (English)
• Brigitte Totschnig in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ «“ Football live ”is something very special» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 18, 1977, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)