Gustl Mayer (skier)

Gustl Mayer
Full name	August Mayer
nation	Austria
birthday	August 15, 1917
place of birth	Villach ,  Austria
date of death	January 19, 2015
Place of death	Villach ,  Austria
Career
discipline	Alpine skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined skiing
society	SV Villach
National squad	since 1937
End of career	1948
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Alpine skiing 9 0 0  Ski jumping 2 1 1  Cross-country skiing 1 0 0  Nordic combination 1 0 0

August “Gustl” Mayer (born August 15, 1917 in Villach ; † January 19, 2015 there ) was an Austrian ski jumper and ski racer . For many years he was a versatile athlete ( rowing , football ) and a Carinthian sports idol. He started for SV Villach .

Career

Mayer started skiing at school age and came to the Villach Skiers' Association through his sports teacher in 1928. Known as an all-rounder who played football and rowing in the summer , he concentrated on ski jumping in addition to alpine races in downhill and slalom . In 1933 he was second at the Austrian Youth Championships. In 1935 he took part with the national team at the preparatory training camp for the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and was nominated as a substitute for the games. At the New Year's competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936, he was fourth. A little later, after Sepp Bradl was injured, Mayer was about to actively participate in the Olympics, but after he released himself from the hospital and started, Mayer remained without action.

At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Chamonix in 1937 , he started with the juniors, known as "young men". For the first team in the seniors, he could not qualify. In the same year he won the Franz Reisch memorial race in the slalom on the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel , which, unlike the Hahnenkamm race, was not held on the Streif. Shortly before, he also won the downhill, slalom and cross-country skiing competitions as part of the White Ribbon in St. Moritz . A year later he won the traditional alpine race in Triglav, Slovenia , which he repeated in 1939 and 1940. As a result, Mayer missed the qualification for major international events due to increasing specialization. With the formation of the Greater German team after the annexation of Austria, the 22-year-old was eliminated from all national squads against the strong competition. Mayer only continued to celebrate successes at national level.

In 1940 he won the national competition in Klagenfurt . As a result, he had to do his military service and did not return from the front until 1945. In the season 1945/46 he celebrated two Carinthian national championships in cross-country skiing and Nordic combined. At the state championships in 1948, he secured the unofficial title in the combination of four. For the 1948 Winter Olympics , which took place a little later , he missed the qualification and ended his active sports career.

After Mayer took up a position as a commercial clerk at Kelag shortly after the war , he worked as a Turkish national trainer for ten years from 1949 and, as a personal friend of the then Turkish Ski President Asim Kurt, made a decisive contribution to skiing in Turkey and especially to be built on Mount Uludağ . Until the end of the 80s he was a functionary - among other things also as Vice President - of the Carinthian State Ski Association.

Mayer was married and had two sons who later also became internationally active as athletes.

Sporting successes

Alpine skiing

• Winner "White Ribbon of St. Moritz" 1937 (downhill, slalom, cross-country skiing)
• 3-time winner of the Triglav downhill skiing (1938, 1939, 1940)
• Austrian champion in the combination of four 1948 (unofficial title)

Ski jumping

• 5-time Carinthian champion (all disciplines)

literature

• Austrian Ski (ed.): Austrian ski stars of A-Z . Ablinger & Garber, Hall in Tirol 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , p. 15.
• Michael Kummerer (Red.): From Grossglockner to Klammer Stitch. 100 years of skiing in Carinthia. Ed. Landesschiverband Kärnten u. Kleine Zeitung, Carinthia Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-85378-622-2 , Gustl Mayer: Herr Mayers G´spür für Schnee. S 16-19.
• Festschrift 75 years of the Villach Ski Association , October 15, 1983
• Festschrift 75 Years of the Carinthian State Ski Association , 1983
• Chronicle 90 years of the Villach Skiers' Association
• Chronicle Legends - Myths - Idols: 100 years of skiing in Villach

Individual evidence

1. ↑ h.winkler: Gustl Mayer - A sports idol is no longer. Landesskiverband Kärnten, January 21, 2015, accessed on March 9, 2015 .