Heidi Zurbriggen

Heidi Zurbriggen
nation	Switzerland
birthday	16th March 1967 (age 53)
place of birth	Saas-Almagell , Switzerland
job	Masseuse
Career
discipline	Downhill , Super-G , giant slalom , combination
status	resigned
End of career	March 27, 1998
Medal table
World championships 0 × 2 × 0 × Junior World Championship 1 × 3 × 0 ×
Alpine World Ski Championships silver Sierra Nevada 1996 Super G silver Sestriere 1997 Departure  Alpine Ski Junior World Championships gold Jasná 1985 combination silver Jasná 1985 Departure silver Jasná 1985 Giant slalom silver Jasná 1985 slalom
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
Individual World Cup debut December 8, 1984  Individual world cup victories 3  Overall World Cup 6. ( 1996/97 )  Downhill World Cup 2. (1996/97)  Super G World Cup 3rd ( 1994/95 )  Giant Slalom World Cup 11. (1996/97)  Combination World Cup 4. ( 1991/92 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Departure 3 4th 5  Super G 0 3 1  combination 0 0 1

Heidi Zurbriggen (born March 16, 1967 in Saas-Almagell , married Heidi Andenmatten-Zurbriggen ) is a former Swiss ski racer . She specialized in the downhill and super-G disciplines and won three world cup races and two silver medals at world championships. Her nephew Elia and her older brother Pirmin are or were also ski racers.

biography

As a junior, Zurbriggen was considered one of the greatest hopes for young Swiss talent, even if it was initially overshadowed by its more successful brother. On December 8, 1984 she won her first World Cup points as twelfth in the Super-G in Davos . At the Junior World Championships 1985 in Jasná she won the gold medal in combination; in the downhill, giant slalom and slalom , she came second. For these successes, she was named Young Athlete of the Year 1985 by the Swiss Sports Aid Foundation . Then, however, she fell ill with a virus and was temporarily dependent on a wheelchair in 1986 because of polyarthritis- like symptoms.

Zurbriggen achieved third place in the descent on December 12, 1986 in Val-d'Isère , the first race after her comeback, and achieved her best result so far. In December 1987, she broke her tibia and fibula during training and was out the entire season. At the 1989 World Ski Championships , she missed the bronze medal in the downhill by four hundredths of a second. A few years followed with numerous results among the top ten and a few podium places. In January 1994 Zurbriggen won the Super-G in Altenmarkt , but five days later the FIS board canceled the race due to irregular weather conditions.

At the 1996 World Ski Championships in the Sierra Nevada , Zurbriggen won the downhill silver medal behind Isolde Kostner . On March 6, 1996, she won the first of three World Cup victories in the downhill from Kvitfjell . She won another silver medal at the 1997 World Ski Championships in Sestriere , when she was just beaten by Hilary Lindh in the Super-G .

In March 1998 Zurbriggen resigned from top-class sport. She completed a three-year training as a medical masseuse in Aarau and opened a practice in 2001 in her brother's hotel in Saas-Almagell.

successes

winter Olympics

• Albertville 1992 : 10th departure
• Lillehammer 1994 : 22nd departure
• Nagano 1998 : 6th giant slalom, 12th downhill, 21st Super-G

World championships

• Crans-Montana 1987 : 14th descent
• Vail 1989 : 4th downhill, 11th giant slalom, 12th Super-G
• Saalbach-Hinterglemm 1991 : 6th combination
• Morioka 1993 : 9th Super-G, 21st giant slalom, 24th downhill
• Sierra Nevada 1996 : 2nd Super-G, 14th Downhill, 16th Giant Slalom
• Sestriere 1997 : 2nd downhill, 11th Super-G, 13th giant slalom

World cup

• 1991/92 : 4th Combination World Cup
• 1994/95 : 3rd Super G World Cup
• 1995/96 : 3rd Downhill World Cup
• 1996/97 : 2nd Downhill World Cup

Heidi Zurbriggen won three world cup races:

date	place	country	discipline
March 6, 1996	Kvitfjell	Norway	Departure
January 11, 1997	Bad Kleinkirchheim	Austria	Departure
January 23, 1997	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Italy	Departure

There are also seven second and third places. It was classified among the top ten 82 times.

More Achievements

• Junior World Championship 1985 : 1st combination, 2nd downhill, 2nd giant slalom, 2nd slalom
• 4 Swiss championship titles : Downhill 1995, Super-G 1996, Giant Slalom 1992, Combination 1992

source

• International sports archive , issue 36/1997 ( Munzinger archive )

Web links

• Heidi Zurbriggen in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Heidi Zurbriggen in the database of Ski-DB (English)
• Heidi Zurbriggen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 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.