Heinz Koch (ski jumper)

Heinz Koch
nation	Austria
birthday	October 22, 1961
place of birth	Villach ,  Austria
Career
status	resigned
Ski jumping world cup / A class jumping
Debut in the World Cup	January 6, 1980

Heinz Koch (born October 22, 1961 in Villach ) is a former Austrian ski jumper and ski jumping trainer. He was the head coach of the Austrian, Czech, Slovenian, French and Chinese national teams and is currently the base coach of the German Ski Association in Willingen. While Koch could not celebrate any great success as an active player, he won medals at world championships and the Olympic Games as a coach.

Career

In his active career, Koch did not achieve any major successes apart from the silver medal at the first European Junior Ski Jumping Championship in Murau in 1978 . Between 1980 and 1985 he took part in seven Four Hills Tournament competitions. A 38th place was his best result. His best World Cup placement outside of the tour he reached in 1985 in Lahti with a 21st place, so he remained without World Cup points.

Heinz Koch got his first coaching job for a national team in 1992, when he replaced Anton Innauer as head coach of the successful Austrian team. In the three years that Koch occupied this post, Andreas Goldberger won the Four Hills Tournament twice (1993 and 1995) and the overall World Cup twice (1993 and 1995). In the 3 years of his tenure, the ÖSV Springer achieved a total of 6 medals at the World Championships and OWS. Andreas Goldberger , who was also looked after privately by Koch, was involved in all medals . Following the team competition at the 1995 World Ski Championships , the coach announced his resignation. In the last competition of the world championship, Goldberger secured the silver medal and dedicated it to the retired chef.

Heinz Koch had his first engagement abroad in 1997 as a consultant for the Czech team. After a year as Andreas Goldberger's private coach in the 1997/1998 season, he moved to Slovenia as head coach the following year. After he left the Slovenian team after only a year, he took a job as coach of the French national team. With individual successes, he moved to China after two years in this job. From January 2003 he built up the country's first ski jumping team there. In January 2004, the Chinese athletes competed for the first time in qualifying for the Four Hills Tournament , but failed early. Ski jumpers from China also started the tour a year later, but Koch told the media: “The performance is not yet right for the World Cup, we are only doing the Four Hills Tournament for the sponsor.” This year, however, Tian Zhandong succeeded was able to qualify for the main competition with a good qualification jump. Otherwise, the Chinese mostly competed in the Continental Cup , where Tian Zhandong , for example, came in sixth as the best place and Li Yang even made it onto the podium once with a third place in Braunlage. In 2005 Koch's athletes took part in the World Championships in Oberstdorf and qualified for the first time in 2006 for the Olympic Games in Turin.

After three years as head coach in China, Heinz Koch moved back to Europe in the summer of 2006 after the Chinese Ski Association also had financial problems. Since then he has been working with other Austrians for the German Ski Association as a base trainer in Willingen . Among other things, Koch looked after Stephan Leyhe , who later became the 2018 Olympic medalist .

Private

Heinz Koch was married to the sister of the 1992 Olympic ski jumping champion, Ernst Vettori , who died in 2015 . His son Björn Koch was born in 1993 and is also an active ski jumper. In the 2009/10 season he also made it to the Austrian B-team. His brother Fritz Koch was also a world cup jumper. Martin Koch , who was a member of the Austrian national ski jumping team for many years , is also related to the trainer . He is Heinz Koch's nephew.

Web links

• Heinz Koch in the database of the International Ski Association (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The "Flea" is supposed to keep jumping on berlinonlinde.de in 1996. Released March 20, 1995.
2. ↑ Mao's flying heirs on berlinonline.de. Released January 2, 2004.
3. ↑ Chinese ski jumpers: 30 out of 1.3 billion on handelsblatt.com. Released January 4, 2005.
4. ↑ Tian Zhandong's FIS profile on fis-ski.com.
5. ↑ Späth wins in Hinterzarten  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on rp-online.de. Released August 6, 2006.  
6. ↑ http://trauerverbindungen.tt.com/trauerbeispiel/2351648-mag-brigitte-koch-vettori.html
7. ↑ World Cup splitter  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on weltcup-willingen.de. Released March 1, 2009.