Christl Haas

Christl Haas
nation	Austria
birthday	September 19, 1943
place of birth	Kitzbühel ,  German Empire
size	174 cm
Weight	74 kg
date of death	July 8, 2001
Place of death	Manavgat ,  Turkey
Career
discipline	Downhill , giant slalom , slalom , combination
society	Kitzbühel Ski Club / SC St. Johann
End of career	1968
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 1 × World championships 2 × 1 × 1 ×
winter Olympics gold Innsbruck 1964 Departure bronze Grenoble 1968 Departure  Alpine World Ski Championships gold Chamonix 1962 Departure gold Innsbruck 1964 Departure silver Innsbruck 1964 combination bronze Grenoble 1968 Departure
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
Overall World Cup 10. ( 1968 )  Downhill World Cup 3rd (1968)  Slalom World Cup 14th ( 1967 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Departure 0 2 2

Christl Haas (born September 19, 1943 in Kitzbühel ; † July 8, 2001 in Manavgat , Turkey ) was an Austrian ski racer . She was one of the best downhill skiers in the world in the 1960s and was Olympic champion in this discipline in 1964.

biography

Christl Haas grew up in Kitzbühel near the famous Hahnenkamm run , and she often had to make her way to school on skis in winter. The Kitzbühel Ski Club became aware of her talent, which she showed particularly on the downhill, and began to promote her in a targeted manner. In 1960 Haas became Austrian junior downhill champion and in the same winter also contested her first major international races, where she was very successful from the start. For example, she won the Parsenn derby in Davos , the downhill, the slalom and the combination at the Coppa Femina in Abetone and in the well-known Arlberg-Kandahar race in 1960 she was second in the downhill run behind Traudl Hecher . With that she had made her breakthrough to the top of the world very quickly. In the following year further top results were added and at the age of 17 she won her first Austrian championship title in the downhill. Seven more were to follow.

In the winter of 1961/62, Haas qualified for the world championship in Chamonix, France, with several podium places . There the 18-year-old celebrated her first big triumph when she became world champion in the downhill with over 3 seconds ahead of the Italian Pia Riva . At that time, at 18 years and 5 months, she was the second youngest downhill world champion behind Esmé MacKinnon , the first world champion ever, who was 17 years, 2 months and 18 days young when she won in 1931. The 1962/63 season began with a serious fall in the giant slalom in Oberstaufen , which forced a break of several weeks. In her first race after the injury, she was back on the podium again in the Abetone descent, and a few more victories followed this season, for example the triple triumph in downhill, slalom and combined in Zermatt .

In the 1963/64 season, Haas won the downhill run of the Silberkrugrennen in Bad Gastein with over 5 seconds ahead of her compatriot Traudl Hecher and was considered a big favorite for the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck . There she lived up to this role and after finishing sixth in the slalom and fourth in the giant slalom, she won the Olympic downhill run on the Axamer Lizum with more than a second ahead of her team colleague Edith Zimmermann . In the combined ranking, which only counted as a world championship competition, she also won the silver medal behind the French Marielle Goitschel . After the games she celebrated more victories and won about all three competitions at the Holmenkollen-Kandahar races in Voss, Norway .

In the following winter, Haas was able to build on its successes of last year and won several descents, including the classic in Grindelwald and the descent of the gold key race in Montafon , but suffered a fibula fracture on February 4, 1965 while training in Mittersill . She returned to the slopes before the end of the season and came third on the Vail Downhill . In the 1965/66 season she was able to repeat her downhill victory at the SDS races in Grindelwald and, in addition to a few other competitions, also won the downhill, slalom and combination at the Arlberg-Kandahar races in Mürren . She was also awarded the diamond Kandahar needle . At the 1966 World Championships , which took place in Portillo, Chile in August , she fell far short of her expectations, finished fifth in the downhill and only 24th in slalom.

During the entire 1966/67 season, Haas was affected by a kidney infection and thus only achieved fourth place in the Monte Bondone slalom in the first ever Ski World Cup . In the downhill she did not come in the top ten for the entire winter. In the next year, however, it was able to improve again. She finished second in the Bad Gastein World Cup downhill run, and came third in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains , qualifying for the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble . There the Tyrolean, who this time was not counted among the favorites, won the bronze medal in the downhill. In the World Cup she took third place in the downhill classification with another second place in Aspen .

After this season, Haas ended her sporting career at the age of 24, also due to the illnesses and injuries she had already suffered. Haas became a state-certified ski instructor and ran a sporting goods store in St. Johann in Tirol . At the opening of the 1976 Winter Olympics , which took place in Innsbruck for the second time since 1964, she lit the “memory fire ” for the 1964 Games, which burned right next to the Olympic flame .

During a vacation in Turkey in the summer of 2001, Christl Haas drowned while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea at the age of 57 .

successes

winter Olympics

• Innsbruck 1964 : 1st descent, 4th giant slalom, 6th slalom
• Grenoble 1968 : 3rd departure

World championships

• Chamonix 1962 : 1st descent, 12th giant slalom
• Innsbruck 1964 : 1st descent, 2nd combination, 4th giant slalom, 6th slalom
• Portillo 1966 : 5th descent, 24th slalom
• Grenoble 1968 : 3rd departure

World cup

• 1968 season : 10th overall ranking, 3rd downhill ranking
• 4 podium places

Austrian championships

Christl Haas was eight times Austrian champion :

• Slalom (1): 1966
• Giant Slalom (1): 1964
• Departure (3): 1961 , 1963 , 1966
• Combination (3): 1964, 1966, 1968

Awards (excerpt)

• 1996: Gold Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria

literature

• Austrian Ski Association (Ed.): Austrian Ski Stars from A – Z. Ablinger & Garber, Hall in Tirol 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , pp. 129-130.

Web links

• Christl Haas in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Christl Haas in the database of Ski-DB (English)
• Christl Haas in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Entry on Christl Haas in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Broken leg from Christl Haas!" In "Kärntner Volkszeitung" No. 30 of February 5, 1965, page 7, middle, left
2. ^ "Christl Haas: Broken fibula during slalom training" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 6, 1965, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ↑ Upper Austrian News , July 10, 2001, page 16
4. ^ New York Times : Christl Haas; Skier, 57 , July 10, 2001
5. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)