Hans Knauß

Hans Knauß
Hans Knauß (2017)
nation	Austria
birthday	9th February 1971 (age 49)
place of birth	Schladming , Austria
size	179 cm
Weight	85 kg
Career
discipline	Downhill , Super-G , giant slalom , combination
society	WSV Schladming
status	resigned
End of career	July 20, 2005
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 1 × 0 × World championships 0 × 1 × 1 ×
winter Olympics silver Nagano 1998 Super G  Alpine World Ski Championships bronze Vail / Beaver Creek 1999 Super G silver St. Moritz 2003 Giant slalom
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
Individual World Cup debut November 28, 1992  Individual world cup victories 7th  Overall World Cup 5. ( 1997/98 , 1998/99 )  Downhill World Cup 4. (1998/99)  Super G World Cup 2. ( 1995/96 , 1997/98)  Giant Slalom World Cup 3. ( 1996/97 , 2002/03 )  Combination World Cup 4. (1995/96)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Departure 1 1 2  Super G 3 1 6th  Giant slalom 3 3 6th  combination 0 1 0

Hans Knauß (born February 9, 1971 in Schladming ) is a former alpine ski racer and motor sportsman from Austria . As a ski racer, he was one of the best in the world in the giant slalom , super-G and downhill disciplines for several years. The two-time Austrian champion achieved seven victories and a further 20 podium places in world cup races , took second place twice in the Super G World Cup and twice third place in the Giant Slalom World Cup. At the 1998 Winter Olympics he won the silver medal in the Super-G, the silver medal in the giant slalom at the 2003 World Championships and the bronze medal in the Super-G at the 1999 World Championships . After a positive doping test and a resulting 18-month ban, he ended his active skiing career in 2005 and became a co-commentator for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation . From 2006 he took part in competitions in motor racing for several years . Knauß is married and has a daughter and a son.

biography

Beginnings and entry into the World Cup (until 1994)

Knauß's grandfather and father were good skiers who took part in local races. The father worked as a lift employee at the Planai railways . Like his five older siblings, including six-time professional world champion Bernhard Knauß , Hans Knauß came to skiing at an early age. In 1984 and 1986 he was Austrian school champion four times and in 1984 he won the slalom and giant slalom of the Trofeo Topolino . After some time in the Styrian national team, he was accepted into the team of the Austrian Ski Association in 1987. In the following three years he was used at the Junior World Championships , where he remained without top positions and achieved results around tenth as the best results.

Starts in FIS races and in the European Cup followed at the beginning of the 1992/93 season, the first participation in a World Cup race . As 28th of the giant slalom in Sestriere , he immediately won World Cup points. In March 1993 Knauß drove to the top of the world for the first time when he achieved fourth place in the Super-G in Aspen . After further top 10 results, he reached his first World Cup podium a year later, on March 17, 1994, with third place in the Vail Super-G . Previously, his results had already qualified him for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer . However, his first major event was not very successful: At first he was eliminated in the combination in the downhill race, then he only came 20th in the Super-G. He had better placements in all of the World Cup Super Gs that winter. In 1994 Knauß became Austrian champion in giant slalom for the first time , and won a second title in 1997 .

Connection to the top of the world (1995–1999)

After the 1994/95 season was less successful with only one top 10 result, Knauß rose to the top of the world in the winter of 1995/96 . He celebrated his first World Cup victory on December 17, 1995 in the giant slalom in Alta Badia and five weeks later also won the Super-G in Valloire . He was on the podium three more times in these two disciplines, and he also achieved second place in the Hahnenkamm combination in Kitzbühel . In addition to the combination, he was also able to score points in descents for the first time this winter. At the end of the season, Knauß was sixth in the overall World Cup, second in the Super G World Cup, fourth in the Combination World Cup and fifth in the Giant Slalom World Cup. The next season in 1996/97 was similarly successful : Knauß won the Super-G of the criterion for the first snow in Val-d'Isère , was second in the Park City giant slalom and third in the Breckenridge giant slalom on the podium twice and reached the top another four top 5 placements. He finished seventh in the overall World Cup and third in the Giant Slalom World Cup, but fell back to eighth place in the Super G World Cup.

At major events Knauß initially remained without a medal: At the World Championship in the Spanish Sierra Nevada , which was postponed by a year to 1996 , he finished 9th in the Super-G and 16th in the downhill, while he did not see the finish in the giant slalom and in the combined . At the 1997 World Championships in Sestriere, he was fourth in the Super-G (six hundredths of a second behind bronze medalist Günther Mader ) and seventh in the giant slalom. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano it worked with the first precious metal: Knauß won the silver medal in the Super-G behind Hermann Maier and at the same time as Didier Cuche and, as fourth in the giant slalom, missed another medal by just two hundredths of a second. Knauß also won precious metal at the 1999 World Championships in Vail / Beaver Creek , in a very tight decision: Hans Knauß, who was third in the Super-G, was only a hundredth of a second short of the two simultaneous winners Hermann Maier and Lasse Kjus . And as in the previous year, he missed a second medal again by only two hundredths of a second, this time however in the downhill and not in the giant slalom. These hundredths of a second decisions, which occurred more often in his career and mostly to his disadvantage, earned Knauß the nickname "Hundredth Hans". In retrospect, Knauß himself viewed these tight decisions as "a certain test of dealing with success and failure in such a way that it does not change my basic, relaxed attitude towards life."

In addition to winning medals at the Olympic Games and World Championships, Knauß continued to be at the top of the World Cup. In the 1997/98 and 1998/99 seasons he celebrated one victory each (1998 in the Super-G from Kvitfjell and 1999 in the Downhill from Kitzbühel), he also achieved four podium positions and a number of other top 5 placements. In both years he was fifth in the overall World Cup, followed by second place in the Super G World Cup in 1997/98 and fifth place in the Giant Slalom World Cup. In 1998/99 he fell back slightly in these two disciplines (fifth in the Super-G and seventh in the giant slalom), but he was able to improve from 15th to fourth place in the downhill. He contributed sixth place to the nine-time victory of the ÖSV ski team on the Patscherkofel.

Injuries and comeback (1999-2004)

Hans Knauß in Kitzbühel in January 2000

In the next few years Knauß was unable to match the previous results due to several injuries. In the winter of 1999/2000, after a ligament injury sustained shortly before the start of the season, he remained without a podium for the first time since the beginning of the World Cup. Although he was often among the top ten, he fell significantly behind in all World Cup rankings. After he had only achieved a few top 10 places in the first half of the 2000/01 season , but had not found his old form, he fell in mid-January on the Hahnenkamm run in Kitzbühel. Serious knee injuries marked the end of the season, and rehabilitation was made more difficult by an inflammation of the knee.

After this injury break, Knauß slowly found his way back to earlier form during the 2001/02 season . On February 3, 2002, when he finished third in the giant slalom in St. Moritz, he achieved the first podium finish in three years. So he qualified within the Austrian team at the last moment for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City , where he was eliminated in the first giant slalom. In the winter of 2002/03 Knauß was able to improve, especially in the giant slalom, and return to the top of the world. He won the two giant slaloms in Adelboden and Lillehammer, took third place in the Giant Slalom World Cup and was once again among the top ten in the overall World Cup. Knauß was also successful at the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz by winning the silver medal in the giant slalom. Again it was a close decision: He was separated from the winner Bode Miller by three hundredths of a second, and from third-placed Erik Schlopy by only one hundredth of a second. In the 2003/04 season Knauß fell significantly behind in the giant slalom (after a third place in Park City he was only once among the top ten, in the Giant Slalom World Cup he was ranked 15th), but he was able to win in the downhill and super- G increase noticeably compared to the previous year. He did not win this winter, but achieved three podiums in Downhill and Super-G as well as another five top-5 placements and finished sixth in both discipline World Cups.

Doping ban (2004-2005)

The 2004/05 season began Knauß with a fifth place in the giant slalom in Soelden , and a fourth place in the departure of Lake Louise , after which he occupied until his last World Cup starting on 17 December 2004 in the departure of Val Gardena among other things, two sixth places . The reason for the sudden end of his skiing career was a positive doping test that Knauß had given after the descent in Lake Louise. In this sample, as well as in the B sample, an increased value of the anabolic steroid nandrolone was detected, whereupon Knauß was banned by the International Ski Federation (FIS) for 18 months in January 2005 and all results from Lake Louise were canceled. The reason for the increased nandrolone level is said to have been a contaminated dietary supplement ( vitamin preparation ) from the US manufacturer Ultimate Nutrition . Knauß sued this suspension at the International Court of Justice for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne . He wanted at least to shorten it to 12 months in order to be eligible for the 2006 Winter Olympics . The International Sports Court, however, confirmed the suspension in full, whereupon Knauß announced his retirement from ski racing on July 20, 2005. Knauß filed a civil lawsuit against the manufacturer of the dietary supplement he was taking. In May 2008, he reached an out-of-court settlement with the manufacturing company.

Motorsport and other activities (from 2005)

Even when he was still an active ski racer, Knauß took part in the first car races. After the end of his skiing career, he took part in the FIA GT Championship in the GT2 group for the Lower Austrian private team Renauer Motorsport in the 2006 season . There he drove a Porsche 996 GT3 RS , but only finished both races in the lower midfield. At the end of the season, Knauß was given the opportunity to drive a Lamborghini Gallardo in the young FIA GT3 European Championship . Although Knauß did not see the checkered flag in either race in Dijon , he stayed with the series in 2007. Together with his compatriot Werner Gröbl , he drove most of the championship races. For the final run in Dubai , Knauß had a new team-mate at his side, Jan Danis . Although he played no role in the championship decision, Knauß won the Lamborghini one-make cup classification of the European championship, which was also advertised. In 2008 he expanded his involvement with S-Berg Racing and now, in addition to the European Championship, also drove a few races in the Italian GT Championship and the International GT Open . In addition, Knauß competed in the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race in the same year, but did not finish the run of the FIA ​​GT championship. In 2006 he took second place with Porsche at the International Czech Endurance Championship in Most , and in 2007 he won the international hundred mile race in Brno with Lamborghini .

Knauß continues to be closely associated with ski racing. Since October 2005 he has been working as a co-commentator, analyst and camera operator for alpine ski races for Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). At the end of the 2019/20 World Cup season , he announced that he would end his work as a camera operator after 15 years and more than 500 trips for risk reasons.

Success in ski racing

winter Olympics

• Lillehammer 1994 : 20th Super-G
• Nagano 1998 : 2nd Super-G, 4th giant slalom

World championships

• Sierra Nevada 1996 : 9th Super-G, 16th Downhill
• Sestriere 1997 : 4th Super-G, 7th giant slalom
• Vail / Beaver Creek 1999 : 3rd Super-G, 4th Downhill
• St. Moritz 2003 : 2nd giant slalom

World Cup ratings

season	total		Departure		Super G		Giant slalom		combination
	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points
1992/93	71.	96	-	-	30th	50	21st	46	-	-
1993/94	39.	225	-	-	9.	152	22nd	73	-	-
1994/95	73.	57	-	-	25th	49	43.	8th	-	-
1995/96	6th	748	23.	95	2.	267	5.	306	4th	80
1996/97	7th	756	17th	170	8th.	187	3.	349	9.	50
1997/98	5.	888	15th	242	2.	256	5.	375	-	-
1998/99	5.	913	4th	399	5.	233	7th	281	-	-
1999/00	18th	525	12.	238	12.	159	17th	128	-	-
2000/01	32.	231	21st	95	14th	85	31.	51	-	-
2001/02	21st	361	26th	71	11.	156	14th	134	-	-
2002/03	10.	596	21st	100	14th	131	3.	365	-	-
2003/04	9.	796	6th	421	6th	237	15th	138	-	-
2004/05	88	45	-	-	-	-	33.	45	-	-

World Cup victories

• 27 podium places, including 7 wins:

date	place	country	discipline
December 17, 1995	Alta Badia	Italy	Giant slalom
January 23, 1996	Valloire	France	Super G
December 16, 1996	Val d'Isère	France	Super G
March 8, 1998	Kvitfjell	Norway	Super G
January 23, 1999	Kitzbühel	Austria	Departure
January 14, 2003	Adelboden	Switzerland	Giant slalom
March 15, 2003	Lillehammer	Norway	Giant slalom

Junior World Championships

• Madonna di Campiglio 1988 : 12th Super-G, 20th combination, 21st giant slalom, 30th descent, 34th slalom
• Alyeska 1989 : 10th departure
• Zinal 1990 : 8th Super-G, 11th giant slalom

Austrian championships

• Austrian champion in giant slalom 1994 and 1997

Awards (excerpt)

• 1998: Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria

literature

• Austrian Ski Association (Ed.): Austrian Ski Stars from A – Z. Ablinger & Garber, Hall in Tirol 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , pp. 197-199.

Web links

Commons : Hans Knauß  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website by Hans Knauß
• Hans Knauß in the database of the International Ski Association (English)
• Hans Knauß in the database of Ski-DB (English)
• Hans Knauß in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hank McKee: Darkhorse Of Nagano. In: Ski. Volume 62, Number 6, February 1998, ISSN  0037-6159 , p. 84.
2. ↑ Hans Knauß won medals at Austrian school championships. ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ÖSV winner board, accessed on November 15, 2012. 
3. ↑ column below: «in brief», third post . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 29, 1984, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ^ Armin Assinger , Claus Schönhofer: 40 years of the Ski World Cup. Ueberreuter, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-8000-7292-7 , p. 124.
5. ^ Armin Assinger , Robert Seeger : Gold. Austria's biggest ski stars. Ueberreuter, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8000-7041-3 , p. 90.
6. ↑ Knauß unbuckles his boards. In: Wiener Zeitung , July 21, 2005, p. 18.
7. ↑ Knauß agrees on damages with the US company. ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. sport.orf.at, May 14, 2008, accessed on November 15, 2012. 
8. ↑ Farewell live on ORF Hans Knauß will no longer do tracking shots. In: kleinezeitung.at. Kleine Zeitung, March 8, 2020, accessed on March 8, 2020 .