Wallace Werner
Wallace "Buddy" Werner (born February 26, 1936 in Steamboat Springs , Colorado ; † April 12, 1964 in Samedan , Switzerland ) was an American ski racer . With his successes in the 1950s and 1960s, he is considered one of the first world-class skiers in his country.
Life
Werner was one of three siblings who achieved top results in alpine skiing. Like his sister Gladys and his brother Loris, he was a member of the US national ski team from 1954.
In 1959, he was the first American to win the prestigious Hahnenkamm run in Kitzbühel . In the same year and a second time in 1962 he won the Silver Belt in the Sugar Bowl . In 1956 and 1964 he took part in the Winter Olympics, but remained without a medal. He was absent from the 1960s in his home country, the USA, because he broke his leg during internal training sessions for the US team.
At the 1958 World Ski Championships in Bad Gastein , he was fourth in slalom and fifth in giant slalom. In the downhill he fell with the prospect of a medal just before the finish, which meant that he missed the chance of the podium in the combined classification. Four years later, with a fifth place in the giant slalom at the World Championships in Chamonix, he was again able to achieve a top placement.
In 1963 he won downhill, slalom and combination of the Harriman Cup in Sun Valley , after winning the downhill there two years earlier. From 1957 to 1963 he was a total of seven times American champion in all disciplines.
After the racing season 1963-64 American US with the championships in Alaska had finished, Werner went back to Europe in the Swiss Alps in the sports movie Skifascination of Willy Bogner participate. During the filming, he was killed in an avalanche on the Trais Fluors slope near Samedan . The German ski racer Barbara Henneberger died with him .
In memory of him, Storm Mountain was renamed Mount Werner in the ski resort of his hometown Steamboat Springs .
Web links
- Wallace Werner in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
- Wallace Werner in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
Individual evidence
- ^ "The alpine USA team without Bud Werner"; “Sport Zürich”, No. 4 from January 11, 1960, page 3.
- ↑ United States Ski Association (Ed.): A History. United States Ski Association. Colorado Springs 1967, pp. 74-77.
- ↑ spiegel.de: Avalanche accident - death in the morning article from April 22, 1964
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Werner, Wallace |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Werner, Buddy; Werner, Bud |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American ski racer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 26, 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Steamboat Springs , Colorado |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 12, 1964 |
| Place of death | Samedan , Switzerland |