Egon Zimmermann (ski racer, 1939)

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Egon Zimmermann Alpine skiing
nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday February 8, 1939
place of birth Lech
size 180 cm
Weight 80 kg
job Chef, hotelier
date of death 23 August 2019
Place of death Lech
Career
discipline Slalom , giant slalom ,
downhill , combination
society Arlberg Ski Club
End of career 1968
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
World championships 2 × gold 0 × silver 1 × bronze
Olympic rings winter Olympics
gold Innsbruck 1964 Departure
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
gold Chamonix 1962 Giant slalom
bronze Chamonix 1962 Departure
gold Innsbruck 1964 Departure
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut January 1967
 Overall World Cup 17th ( 1967 )
 Downhill World Cup 9th (1967)
 Slalom World Cup 21st (1967)
 

Egon Zimmermann (born February 8, 1939 in Lech , Vorarlberg ; † August 23, 2019 there ), also often referred to as Egon Zimmermann II to distinguish it from another ski racer of the same name , was an Austrian ski racer . He became world champion in giant slalom in 1962 and Olympic champion in downhill in 1964 .

Career

Zimmermann started skiing at the age of six. The Arlberg Ski Club soon became aware of his talent and began promoting him accordingly. In addition to ski training, he trained as a chef in France . He celebrated his first major successes in 1959 when he won all competitions at the Austrian Junior Championships and in the combination on Mount Etna won an international race in the general class for the first time. The next winter he won the slalom, the giant slalom and the combination at the Holmenkollen-Kandahar races in Norway, the giant slalom in Sestriere and Val-d'Isère and came third in the Lauberhorn run from Wengen . In the 1960/61 season he achieved second place in the Hahnenkamm run from Kitzbühel and two victories in the downhill and combination of the 3-tre races in Canazei .

Zimmermann celebrated his first major successes at the 1962 World Championships in Chamonix, France : In front of his two teammates Karl Schranz and Martin Burger , he was world champion in giant slalom and in the downhill he won the bronze medal behind Schranz and Frenchman Émile Viollat . In the further course of the season he won the slalom of the Arlberg-Kandahar races in Sestriere and was second in both downhill and combined. He achieved two more victories in the descent and the combination of Zermatt . In the winter of 1962/63 Zimmermann won the downhill and the combination on the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, also the downhill and combination in Megève and the slalom in Bad Wiessee . At the end of this winter he was awarded the first ever Skieur d'Or by the International Association of Ski Journalists (AIJS) .

After Zimmermann finished second in the giant slalom in Bad Hindelang on January 7, 1964, only a hundredth of a second behind the Swiss winner Edmund Bruggmann , and won both giant slaloms on the Lauberhorn in Wengen on January 10 and 11, 1964 , he celebrated his greatest success Career at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck : In downhill skiing on the Patscherkofel , he was Olympic champion ahead of Frenchman Léo Lacroix and German Wolfgang Bartels . Especially in his second competition, the giant slalom, he was one of the favorites as world champion in 1962, but failed in the first round. After the games, he still won the downhill in Gällivare, Sweden .

In the autumn of 1964, the man from Vorarlberg suffered serious injuries in a traffic accident and was only able to take part in races again in the 1965/66 season, but never quite achieved his previous performance. With podium places in the downhill runs from Madonna di Campiglio and Sun Valley as well as in the giant slalom from Gries am Brenner , he qualified for the 1966 World Cup in Portillo, Chile, and took twelfth place in the downhill; he could not finish the giant slalom.

In the first season of the Ski World Cup , Zimmermann reached fourth and seventh place in the downhill and slalom from Wengen and was fifth in the downhill from Kitzbühel, but had a hard fall in downhill training in Megève at the end of January and had to end the season early. In the 1968 season he returned to the ski circuit, but only made it into the top ten in the Wengen descent. Nevertheless, he was able to start at the Olympic Winter Games in 1968 and finished 13th in downhill rank. He ended his career in amateur skiing on September 4, 1968 and switched to professional racing, where he still achieved some good results.

From 1966 Zimmermann built the four-star hotel "Kristberg" in Lech , which he ran until his death in August 2019. He suffered from multiple sclerosis .
On August 23, 2019, Egon Zimmermann died at the age of 80 of heart failure in his birthplace Lech and on August 31 he was buried at the local cemetery in Lech.

successes

winter Olympics

World championships

World cup

  • Four places in the top ten, including two in the top five

Austrian championships

  • Austrian champion in the downhill 1966
  • Austrian junior champion in downhill, slalom, giant slalom and combined 1959

Awards (excerpt)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hindelang: Austria without victory . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 8, 1964, p. 12 , right center ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ↑ Mégève: injured Egon Zimmermann . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 27, 1967, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  3. ↑ Zimmermann is now stepping down - possibly a professional skier in the USA . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna September 5, 1968, p. 12 , left center ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  4. ↑ Olympic champion Egon Zimmermann turns 75 . Article in the Kleine Zeitung on February 5, 2014.
  5. ↑ Olympic champion Egon Zimmermann is dead. Vorarlberg.ORF.at, August 23, 2019, accessed on August 23, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Egon Zimmermann is dead (23 August 2019)
  7. ^ Party Egon Zimmermann. In: todeanhaben.vol.at, August 28, 2019. Accessed August 29, 2019.
  8. ↑ The French are slalom artists . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 12, 1963, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
personal data
SURNAME Zimmermann, Egon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Lech (Vorarlberg)
DATE OF DEATH 23 August 2019
Place of death Lech (Vorarlberg)