Gene Kotlarek

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Gene Kotlarek Ski jumping
1963 Press photo Gene Kotlarek after Norge ski jump

1963 Press photo Gene Kotlarek after Norge ski jump

Full name Eugene Robert Kotlarek
nation United StatesUnited States United States
birthday March 31, 1940
place of birth Duluth ,  USAUnited States 49United States 
size 175 cm
Weight 71 kg
date of death 9th November 2017
Place of death Colorado Springs ,  USAUnited StatesUnited States 
Career
society Duluth XC Ski Club
Medal table
National medals 3 × gold ? ×silver ? ×bronze
Logo of the US ski team US championships
gold 1963 Steamboat Springs singles
gold 1966 Iron Mountain singles
gold 1967 singles
Ski jumping world cup / A class jumping
 Four Hills Tournament 12. ( 1963/64 )
 

Eugene Robert "Gene" Kotlarek (born March 31, 1940 in Duluth ; † November 9, 2017 in Colorado Springs ) was an American ski jumper .

Career

Kotlarek learned ski jumping from his father George Kotlarek . At the age of 17 he won his first national title. So he won after the youth title in 1958, a year later the US junior championship. Before his start at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, he won a total of 11 out of 14 competitions and set 10 new hill records. So he finally went into the games as one of the Americans' hopes. However, he only came 42nd in jumping from the normal hill.

In 1963, Kotlarek won his first US title. At the Holmenkollen Ski Festival in the same year he just missed his first podium as fourth. In the Four Hills Tournament 1963/64 he jumped on the Schattenbergschanze in Oberstdorf to a good 14th place, before he achieved his best individual tour result with fifth place on the Great Olympic Hill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen . After 13th place in Innsbruck and 30th place in Bischofshofen , he finished his only tour in 12th place overall. At the Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck in 1964 he landed on the normal hill, tied on points with Niilo Halonen and Torbjørn Yggeseth, in 14th place. From the large hill it was enough to rank 24. In the year of the games Kotlarek managed to set a new American record with 138 meters on the Heini-Klopfer ski flying hill in Oberstdorf, which lasted nine years.

After he became US champion again in 1967, he was seriously injured while jumping and had to end his active ski jumping career. The following year he began to work as the national coach of the Americans. He held this position until 1970.

In 1982 Kotlarek was inducted into the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame , in which his father had been inducted since 1968.

successes

Four Hills Tournament placements

season space Points
1963/64 12. 810.3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rick Weegman: Duluth's Gene Kotlarek, ski jumping legend, dies at 77. In: Duluth News Tribune. November 14, 2017, accessed December 4, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Ski Jumping ( English ) Sports Illustrated . February 15, 1960. Retrieved October 27, 2013.
  3. ↑ Ski Jumping at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games: Men's Normal Hill, Individual ( English ) Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2013.
  4. ↑ Ski Jumping at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games: Men's Large Hill, Individual ( English ) Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2013.
  5. ^ Gene Kotlarek ( English ) US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Retrieved October 27, 2013.
  6. ↑ George S. Kotlarek ( English ) US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Retrieved October 27, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Kotlarek, Gene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kotlarek, Eugene Robert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ski jumper
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Duluth , Minnesota , United States
DATE OF DEATH 9th November 2017
Place of death Colorado Springs , Colorado , United States