Franz Pfnür

Grave of Franz Pfnür

Franz Pfnür called "Bi Dui" (born November 21, 1908 in Au / Berchtesgaden ; † September 21, 1996 ) was a German ski racer . At the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , he became the first Olympic champion in alpine skiing.

Pfnür started for the Schellenberg Ski Club. At the World Ski Championships in St. Moritz in 1934 , he won silver in both downhill and combined . In the slalom , he succeeded in asserting himself against the favorite David Zogg , who was considered invincible , and Pfnür became world champion. His participation in the 1935 World Cup , where he only finished fifth in the slalom, was less successful .

He achieved the greatest success of his career in 1936 at the Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, when alpine ski races were on the program for the first time. In the two races for the Olympic combined classification he fought an exciting duel with Birger Ruud . In the descent, Pfnür had to admit defeat to the Norwegian. In the slalom on the Gudiberg he then managed to catch up with his deficit and became Olympic champion. In the same year he became German champion in combination.

He came to the nickname "Bi Dui" because of his question in Bavarian dialect (High German): "Am I through", because after a slalom he was not sure whether he had missed a goal.

After the Olympic Games, Pfnür was invited to coffee by Adolf Hitler at his vacation home in Obersalzberg and he joined the SS .

statistics

	discipline	space
Garmisch-Part. 1936	Alpine combination	1.

Web links

• Franz Pfnür in the database of Ski-DB (English)
• Franz Pfnür in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Spiegel Online: Olympia - The Hidden Games , accessed on January 22, 2010
2. ↑ Franz Pfnür in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)