Heinz Nestler

Heinz Nestler (born June 15, 1938 in Neudorf ) is a former German Nordic ski trainer.

After attending school in Neudorf, his home town in the Ore Mountains, Nestler completed training as a forest worker from 1952 to 1955. In terms of sport, he was active in both Nordic and Alpine skiing, and in 1953 he won a ski jumping competition in Johanngeorgenstadt . His greatest success was winning a district championship in the Karl-Marx-Stadt district . After a broken tibia and fibula, he could only go cross-country skiing.

On July 1, 1961, he took over the post of cross-country skiing female trainer at SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal - without any prior knowledge . So he was u. a. for his wife Christine Nestler geb. Mercenary , Olympic participant 1964 and 1968, responsible. After a distance learning at the German University for Physical Culture , he served himself up to the GDR national coach. His greatest success came at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid , when Barbara Petzold won the 10-kilometer classic and the 4 × 5-kilometer relay Olympic victories.

After the fall of the Wall, he was initially unemployed, but after continuing his training group in Oberwiesenthal, he got a mixed-financed position in the Saxon Ski Association. A first success came in 1998 when Claudia Künzel won silver at the Junior World Championships in St. Moritz . Then, on their initiative, he accepted Janko Neuber and René Sommerfeldt into his training group in the WSC Erzgebirge Oberwiesenthal . Sommerfeldt won silver over 50 kilometers at the 2001 World Championships in Lahti . At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City , Claudia Künzel and Viola Bauer trained by him were part of the victorious German women's relay, René Sommerfeldt part of the German bronze relay. (In 2004, Sommerfeldt became the first German overall World Cup winner in cross-country skiing.) In June 2004, Nestler retired.

Ute Nestler is a daughter, Andy Kühne is a grandson of Heinz and Christine Nestler.

literature

• Thomas Schmidt: From forest worker to trainer of the century: Ski trainer legend Heinz Nestler celebrates anniversary , in: Freie Presse , Annaberger Zeitung from June 15, 2018, page sport.