Heidi Zimmermann

This article is about the ski racer; for the swimmer see Heidi Eisenschmidt .

Heidi Zimmermann
nation	Austria
birthday	May 1, 1946 (age 74)
place of birth	Zürs , Austria
Career
discipline	Slalom , giant slalom , downhill , combination
society	Arlberg Ski Club
status	resigned
End of career	1970
Medal table
World championships 0 × 1 × 1 ×
Alpine World Ski Championships silver Portillo 1966 Giant slalom bronze Portillo 1966 combination
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
Individual World Cup debut January 7, 1967  Overall World Cup 16. ( 1967 )  Downhill World Cup 14th (1967)  Giant Slalom World Cup 13th (1967)  Slalom World Cup 23rd ( 1968/69 )

Heidi Zimmermann (born May 1, 1946 in Zürs ) is a former Austrian ski racer . She won the silver medal in giant slalom and the bronze medal in combination at the 1966 World Cup .

biography

Heidi Zimmermann started skiing very early, her older sister Edith was also a ski racer. At the beginning of the 1960s, she celebrated her first successes in junior races. In the winter of 1963/64 she achieved her first victory in an FIS race in the Morzine slalom , and finished third in the Abetone slalom . In the following winter she achieved numerous other podium places, including in the Seegrube giant slalom near Innsbruck and in the giant slalom in Lienz . In the 1965/66 season the next victory in the giant slalom followed in Gries am Brenner as well as several podium places at the North American races in Banff and on Mont Sainte-Anne .

The biggest success of her career celebrated Zimmermann at the 1966 World Cup in Chile Portillo , the first and so far only time in the southern hemisphere were held during the European summer. In the giant slalom, the then 20-year-old won the silver medal and only had to admit defeat to the dominating French woman Marielle Goitschel , with a ninth place in the downhill and 18 in the slalom, she also secured the bronze medal in the combined ranking. Due to the subsequent disqualification of Erik (a) Schinegger , she was the only Austrian who won medals at this World Cup. The medal success brought her in the athlete election in December 1966 (at that time still without separation for women and men) 3rd place with 779 points and a first place) behind Emmerich Danzer (1,275 points, 91 first places) and the aforementioned Schinegger (837 points / 18th place) ) a.

In the first season of the Alpine Ski World Cup , Zimmermann made it into the top ten seven times, the best result being fifth in the giant slalom in Franconia on March 11th. So she finished 16th in the overall ranking. Apart from the World Cup, she won the FIS slalom in Tahoe City in California and on Etna in Sicily . During the preparations for the 1967/68 season Zimmermann suffered a serious knee injury, so he was not used in the World Cup for the entire winter and also missed the Olympic Games in Grenoble . In the FIS races, however, she achieved several victories, including the slalom from Haus im Ennstal and the giant slalom on the Penken .

In the 1968/69 season she took part in World Cup races again, made it into the points four times and achieved her best World Cup result on March 14, 1969 with fourth place in the giant slalom on Mont Sainte-Anne. In the same winter she also became Austrian champion in giant slalom. In the following season, however, she was only used in FIS races, where she won the giant slaloms in Sterzing and Innsbruck, among others . A qualification for the World Cup was not possible for her. Due to a lack of prospects in ski racing, Zimmermann ended her career after the 1969/70 season.

After her marriage, her name was Heidi Strasser-Zimmermann.

successes

World championships

• Portillo 1966 : 2nd giant slalom, 3rd combination, 9th descent, 18th slalom

World cup

• Two places in the top five, another nine times in the top ten

Austrian championships

• Austrian champion in giant slalom 1969

literature

• Austrian Ski Association (publisher): Austrian Ski Stars from A – Z , Innsbruck 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , p. 507f

Web links

• Heidi Zimmermann in the database of the International Ski Association (English) (World Cup results are missing)
• Heidi Zimmermann in the database of Ski-DB (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Emmerich Danzer Sportsman of the Year . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 20, 1966, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ How ski stars look like this morning. Wirtschaftsblatt , August 6, 2008, archived from the original on April 3, 2015 ; accessed on March 20, 2015 .