Franz Gruber (ski racer)

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Franz Gruber Alpine skiing
nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday 8th November 1959 (age 60)
place of birth Kirchdorf an der Krems , Austria
size 172 cm
Weight 80 kg
Career
discipline Slalom , giant slalom ,
combination
society SV Molln
status resigned
End of career 1987
Medal table
JEM medals 0 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
FIS Alpine Junior European Ski Championships
silver 1976 Gällivare slalom
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut 1977/78
 Individual world cup victories 01
 Overall World Cup 08. ( 1983/84 )
 Giant Slalom World Cup 14th ( 1982/83 )
 Slalom World Cup 03. (1983/84)
 Combination World Cup 13. (1982/83)
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 slalom 1 3 4th
 combination 0 0 1
 

Franz Gruber (born November 8, 1959 in Kirchdorf an der Krems ) is a former Austrian ski racer . He was particularly successful in slalom , but also in giant slalom . In these disciplines he won five Austrian championship titles . He celebrated a victory in the World Cup and stood on the podium eight more times. At the 1984 Winter Olympics , he finished fourth in the giant slalom.

Career

At the age of 14, Franz Gruber was accepted into the squad of the Austrian Ski Association . He celebrated his first successes in 1975 with two Austrian junior championships in slalom and giant slalom and in 1976 with the silver medal in slalom at the European Junior Championships in Gällivare . In 1977 he was again Austrian junior champion in giant slalom. In the winter of 1977/78 he won his only race in the European Cup , a slalom in the Šar Planina , and made his first appearances in the World Cup . Gruber won his first World Cup points on February 5, 1979 with tenth place in the Jasná slalom , two days later he already reached fourth place in Oslo . A week later he was in Bad Gastein for the first time Austrian champion in slalom. Four more national titles followed in the next seven years, two each in slalom and two in giant slalom.

After a few more top 10 placements in the World Cup, Gruber was third in the Åre slalom on February 15, 1981 for the first time on the podium. With a total of five top 10 places, he reached tenth place in the Slalom World Cup in the 1980/81 season and was therefore the best Austrian in this discipline for the first time, which he remained for the next three years. In the winter of 1981/82 he reached fifth place in the Slalom World Cup with two podium places and another five top 10 results. At the 1982 World Cup in Schladming , he finished eighth in the slalom - the only Austrian to finish the race.

Gruber achieved a number of good results in the 1982/1983 season . On January 30, 1983, he celebrated his first and only World Cup victory in the slalom of the Vitranc Cup in Kranjska Gora , where he (in fourth place) was 1.55 seconds behind the leading Stig Strand (SWE) after the first round Made a lead of 0.34 sec; it was also the first victory in a men's slalom for Austria since Kitzbühel 1978 (Klaus Heidegger). In addition, this was the first ever World Cup victory for an Upper Austrian . Another seven times he was in the top ten in slalom and twice in the top 10 in giant slalom. In the combination of the 3-tre races in Madonna di Campiglio , he achieved third place with seventh place in the slalom and 13th place in the Super-G. Gruber achieved ninth place as the best Austrian in the slalom and overall World Cup, tied with the Yugoslav Bojan Križaj .

Gruber was able to improve a bit in the 1983/84 season . This time he was on the podium four times in the slalom, with which he reached third place in the Slalom World Cup. He was twice in the top ten in the giant slalom and in the combination of Madonna di Campiglio he again achieved a good result in fourth. Compared to the previous year, he was able to improve by one place to eighth place in the overall World Cup. At the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo in 1984 , Gruber retired from his favorite slalom discipline - like all other Austrians. In the giant slalom, however, he surprisingly came fourth. In the first round, the Upper Austrian, who was never among the top five in this discipline in the World Cup, was still in third place; He finally missed a medal by 33 hundredths of a second.

In the next few years Gruber could no longer follow up on previous services. In the 1984/85 season he drove three times in the top ten and was thus able to qualify for the 1985 World Cup in Bormio . There he finished 19th in the giant slalom and retired in the slalom. In the winter of 1985/86 he reached the World Cup points only once and after he had remained entirely without World Cup points in the 1986/87 season , Gruber ended his career at the age of 27.

successes

winter Olympics

World championships

Junior European Championships

World cup

date place country discipline
January 30, 1983 Kranjska Gora Yugoslavia slalom

European Cup

Austrian championships

  • Five-time Austrian champion :
  • Three times Austrian Junior Champion:
    • 1 × slalom (1975)
    • 2 × giant slalom (1975 and 1977)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arbeiter-Zeitung , Vienna, January 31, 1983, page 9 - middle, title: "Gruber dosed correctly"
  2. ^ Province of Upper Austria - Chronicle 1983 . Website of the Province of Upper Austria, accessed on December 1, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Gruber, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Kirchdorf an der Krems , Austria