Friedl Pfeifer

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Friedl Pfeifer Alpine skiing
nation AustriaAustria Austria United States
United StatesUnited States 
birthday March 23, 1911
place of birth St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria
date of death February 26, 1995
Place of death Paradise Valley, Arizona, United States
Career
discipline Slalom , downhill ,
combination
society Ski Club Arlberg
Medal table
World championships 0 × gold 0 × silver 1 × bronze
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
bronze Murren 1935 slalom
 

Friedl Pfeifer (born March 23, 1911 in St. Anton am Arlberg , † February 26, 1995 in Paradise Valley , Arizona ) was an Austrian - American ski racer .

Career

Pfeifer grew up in the Tyrolean ski resort of St. Anton. He learned to ski on the way between his parents' house and school, which he mastered on skis in winter. At the age of 14 he came to Hannes Schneider's ski school . At the age of 18, he passed the mountain guide exam. Four years later he became a member of the Austrian national ski team. His younger brother Albert (1919–1943) was also a ski racer.

Between 1933 and 1937 Pfeifer took part in four Alpine World Ski Championships. In 1935 he won the bronze medal in slalom at the same time as the Frenchman François Vignole in Mürren, Switzerland . In 1936 he was the first Austrian to win the combined classification of the Arlberg-Kandahar race in his home town in eight years , and in the same year he also won the downhill race at the international Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel. He was denied participation in the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where alpine competitions were on the program for the first time, after the Austrian Ski Association decided to start after disputes with the IOC about the classification of ski instructors as professionals to renounce.

In 1938 Pfeifer left Austria and moved to the United States, where he later received citizenship. He won the slalom of the Harriman Cup in 1939, 1940 and 1941 - in 1941 he also won the combination, won the first Silver Belt in 1940 and won the US slalom championships in the open class in 1939 and 1940 . After finishing his active career, he became the director of a ski school in Sun Valley , Idaho . During the training of the 10th Mountain Division by Schneider at Camp Hale during the Second World War , he got to know the winter sports resort of Aspen in Colorado . After being wounded in the Italian campaign , through which he should lose part of his lungs, he returned there and founded a ski school with two fellow division members. With his help, the ski areas on Aspen Mountain (Ajax) and Buttermilk Mountain could be opened up. During this time he organized professional ski races, coached the US women's team and established the popular parallel slalom .

statistics

World championships

Audio

  • Marie-Claire Messinger (granddaughter), Nicole Dietrich: The Sound of Skiing. The story of the Tyrolean ski pioneer Friedl Pfeifer. Audio images , February 13, 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tim Cooney: Aspen's Skiing History: An Evolving Timeline. On: Aspen Journalism website; Aspen, CO. January 11, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2019 (in English).
  2. ^ Cait Murphy: A History of American Sports in 100 Objects. New York, 2016: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-09774-6 (pages 93-97, in English).
  3. ↑ Mort Lund: Timeline of Important Ski History Dates. Contributed by John Allen and Seth Masia on: International Ski History Association website; Manchester Center, VT, 1999-2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019 (in English).
personal data
SURNAME Pfeifer, Friedl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Anton am Arlberg , Tyrol
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1995
Place of death Paradise Valley (Arizona)