Ernst Hinterseer

Ernst Hinterseer
nation	Austria
birthday	27th February 1932 (age 88)
place of birth	Kitzbuhel , Austria
Career
discipline	Slalom , giant slalom , downhill , combination
society	Kitzbühel Ski Club
status	resigned
End of career	1960
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 1 × World championships 1 × 0 × 1 ×
winter Olympics gold Squaw Valley 1960 slalom bronze Squaw Valley 1960 Giant slalom  Alpine World Ski Championships gold Squaw Valley 1960 slalom bronze Squaw Valley 1960 Giant slalom

Ernst Hinterseer (born February 27, 1932 in Kitzbühel ) is a former Austrian ski racer and alpine ski trainer. He was a member of the national team of the Austrian Ski Association from 1954 to 1960 and was Olympic champion in slalom in 1960 .

biography

Hinterseer grew up as the son of a farmer in Kitzbühel. After the end of the Second World War he began an apprenticeship as a carpenter , and in 1946 he became a member of the Kitzbühel Ski Club. After his first successes at national junior races, he finished his apprenticeship in order to devote himself entirely to skiing.

In 1953 he celebrated his first major success with the downhill victory on the Wendelstein , a year later he became Austrian champion in giant slalom. He was accepted into the Austrian national team and qualified for the world championship in Åre , where he only finished 38th in slalom.

In the winter of 1954/55, Hinterseer had already won numerous races, such as the downhill runs, the slalom and the combination of Zermatt , the slalom of Chamonix and the giant slalom of Val-d'Isère and Sölden . The next season started with good performances and he qualified for the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo , where he finished sixth in the giant slalom. After the games he won the slalom and combination in Zermatt as well as the two giant slaloms and the combination of the 3-tre races on the Marmolada .

The following winter, in January, he took second place in the important slalom races in Kitzbühel ( Hahnenkamm races ) and Wengen ( Lauberhorn races ), and continued to improve over the course of the season, winning a total of ten competitions, including the slaloms of Semmering and Zermatt and the Courchevel giant slalom .

The 1957/58 season did not start quite so well and Hinterseer only qualified in slalom for the World Championship in Bad Gastein , where he was already out in the first run. A little later on March 5, while training for the Arlberg-Kandahar descent in St. Anton , he suffered a serious fall, suffered a fractured lower leg and was even in mortal danger for a short time due to an embolism . In the next winter he was only able to gradually reconnect to earlier achievements and specializes increasingly in the technical disciplines.

Olympic victory, end of career - coaching activities

In the 1959/60 season, Hinterseer only made one podium finish in the first few weeks, which made his greatest successes all the more surprising and unexpected in February at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley . Already in the giant slalom he came third behind the Swiss Roger Staub and the Austrian Josef Stiegler and thus won his first medal at major events. Three days later he crowned his career by winning the slalom ahead of his compatriot Mathias Leitner and the French Charles Bozon , although he was only fifth after the first run. It was the only gold medal from Austria's alpine mountains at these games. Hinterseer became a big star and was named Austrian Sportsman of the Year 1960.

Immediately after the Olympic Games, Hinterseer ended his sporting career with the amateurs and switched to the professionals, where he won the unofficial world title in 1963. In 1967 he finally ended his active career and became a coach. At first he looked after his eldest son Hansi ; from 1972 to 1974 he was a technical trainer at the ÖSV and from 1974 to 1976 at the DSV .

His two younger sons Ernst jun. and Guido also became ski racers; his grandson Lukas is an Austrian national soccer player .

successes

winter Olympics

• Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 : 6th giant slalom
• Squaw Valley 1960 : 1st slalom, 3rd giant slalom

World championships

• Åre 1954 : 38th slalom
• Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 : 6th giant slalom
• Squaw Valley 1960 : 1st slalom, 3rd giant slalom

Austrian championships

• Two-time Austrian champion (giant slalom 1954 , combination 1956 )

Awards

• Austrian athlete of the year 1960
• Decoration of Honor in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria (1997)

literature

• Austrian Ski Association (Ed.): Austrian Ski Stars from A – Z. Ablinger & Garber, Hall in Tirol 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , pp. 150-151.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ^ City of Kitzbühel (ed.): City of Kitzbühel. Volume 12 / No. 1, January 2008, p. 1 ( online as PDF).
2. ↑ Ernst Hinterseer is celebrating his 80s.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Kitzbüheler Ski Club, February 27, 2012, accessed on February 28, 2012.  
3. ↑ Hinterseer broke his leg . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 6, 1958, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ↑ Column 5, middle: "Ernst Hinterseer leaves the DSV" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 7, 1976, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).