Heinz von Allmen

Heinz von Allmen (born August 10, 1913 , † November 11, 2003 in Lauterbrunnen ) was a Swiss ski racer and multiple medalist at Alpine World Ski Championships in the 1930s. During his active time from 1933 to 1943 he was one of the best alpine skiers and also one of the best Nordic skiers in Switzerland.

Career

As the oldest of five brothers from the Bernese Oberland , Heinz von Allmen came into contact with skiing very early on and used his everyday work for training purposes. In this way he worked out his basic fitness for years with the toughest physical work by carrying bales of hay to Mettlenalp and transporting them to Wengen by sledge . During his military service he was part of the reconnaissance patrol of sergeant Karl Molitor, who was seven years his junior, and used his military missions in the Valais Alps as training runs for alpine and Nordic skiing. In his private life, Heinz von Allmen was a member of the Wengen Ski Club. There he trained cross-country skiing and slalom , after the afternoon ski school also downhill and ski jumping . Because of this versatile orientation, he became one of the best four-combo (early mixed form of Alpine and Nordic combination ) of his time.

He celebrated his first successes in 1933 with victories in downhill, slalom and alpine combination in the junior class at the Swiss championships as well as the surprising first big win at the March ski race in Wengen ahead of the Kitzbühel Leo Gasperl and second place in the Arlberg Kandahar race counting downhill from Murren . The rapid rise of the Oberlander continued uninterrupted in 1934, with von Allmen not only convincing experts in the alpine area, but also in the Nordic area with his tenacity in cross-country skiing and his stylistically impeccable attitude in jumping . Heinz von Allmen won the first Grand Prix of Megève and the combination of four at the French championships that year. At the Arlberg-Kandahar race in St. Anton am Arlberg , he finished second and at the FIS races in St. Moritz third in the downhill and alpine combination. At the FIS race in Mürren, which was later declared the World Ski Championships , he won the bronze medal in downhill skiing behind his compatriot David Zogg and the later German Olympic champion Franz Pfnür . He got his second medal in the combination, where he was able to position himself in third place behind Zogg and Pfnür. In 1935 von Allmen had to stop all sporting activity due to a broken leg.

At the start of the 1936 season, he won the Megève Grand Prix convincingly ahead of world champions Rudolf Rominger and Émile Allais , making him one of the favorites at the upcoming major events. However, he was not allowed to take part in the Olympic Games because of his work as a ski instructor, which he ran alongside. For this he kept himself harmless with the silver medal in the alpine combination behind Rominger and the third place in the downhill skiing at the alpine ski world championship in Innsbruck . In the same year von Allmen also took second place in downhill, slalom and combination at the Arlberg-Kandahar races in St. Anton and second place in the combination of four in Davos . The following year he was Swiss downhill champion in Les Diablerets with nine seconds ahead of Willy Steuri , Swiss ski champion in the combination of four and won again the combination in the Wengen March ski race ahead of Rominger.

In 1938 he was still successful in the combination of four at the French championships, but together with his younger brother Otto (* 1920), who was also a successful skier and cross-country skier, he was already thinking about emigrating to the USA . In 1939, both brothers emigrated to the United States, earned their money as ski instructors and also competed in various ski races in the USA and Canada. Heinz von Allmen won the downhill race and the combination at the Canadian Québec- Kandahar in Saint-Sauveur. After just a few months, both returned to Switzerland and continued their careers as skiers. A few years later Otto von Allmen finally emigrated to the USA and died there in 1989.

In 1940 Heinz von Allmen won the combination of four in the Gstaad Wispillenrennen and also the Diavolezza race ahead of Rudolf Rominger. In 1941 he was the first Bernese Oberlander to win the Parsenn Derby and, along with Willy Bernath , Robert Zurbriggen and Hans Schoch, was a member of the successful Swiss military patrol squadron at the World Cup in Cortina d'Ampezzo , Italy , which was canceled retrospectively by the FIS in 1946 . In the following years, racing in alpine skiing paused due to the events of World War II , which meant that Allmen and the rest of Switzerland lost all international competition. At the Swiss Championships in 1942 in Grindelwald, although he had won in downhill and cross-country skiing and had finished second in the slalom, to his disappointment he was only runner-up in the combination of four behind his brother Otto . When international racing slowly established itself again after the Second World War, Heinz von Allmen no longer took part in any major races. Only at the Oberland and Swiss ski instructor championships did he remain active until he was five years old. At that time, however, his main focus was already on his professional activities as a ski school director, mountain guide and tennis trainer. He contested his very last ski race in 1979 at the age of 66 in the so-called " Inferno Race " in Mürren.

Heinz von Allmen was married and the father of a daughter (Susanne). After the death of his wife in 1993, the former ski star withdrew more and more. In 2003 he finally came to the Lauterbrunnen nursing home, where he also spent the last months of his life and died at the age of 90.

successes

World championships

• Silver medal in the Alpine Combination in Innsbruck 1936
• Bronze medal in downhill skiing in Mürren in 1934
• Bronze medal in the Alpine Combination in Mürren 1934
• Bronze medal in downhill skiing in Innsbruck 1936

Victories in FIS competitions

• Downhill at the March ski race in Wengen 1933
• Combination of four at the French Ski Championships in 1934
• Megève Grand Prix 1934
• Megève Grand Prix 1936
• Combination at the March ski races in Wengen 1937
• Seven victories on the Lauberhorn from 1937 to 1943 (2 × downhill 1937, 1938; 3 × combination, 2 × slalom)
• Four combination at the French championships in 1938
• Combination of four at the Wispillenrennen in Gstaad 1940
• Parsenn Derby 1941

Swiss championships

• 1933 Winner in the junior class in downhill, slalom and alpine combination
• 1937 to 1942 a total of 9 Swiss champions in downhill (2), combination of four (3), cross-country skiing (4):
  • Swiss ski champion in the combination of four in 1937, 1940 and 1941
  • Swiss champion in downhill in 1937 and 1942
  • Swiss champion in cross-country skiing in 1938, 1940, 1941 and 1942
• 5 victories at the Oberland Championships in the combination of four from 1934 to 1940

Web links

• Heinz von Allmen in the database of Ski-DB (English)