Helmut Höflehner

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Helmut Höflehner Alpine skiing
nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday 24th November 1959 (age 60)
place of birth Gumpenberg, Austria
size 180 cm
Weight 78 kg
Career
discipline Downhill , Super-G , combination
society TVN house
status resigned
End of career 1994
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut January 20, 1978
 Individual world cup victories 10
 Overall World Cup 5. ( 1989/90 )
 Downhill World Cup 1. ( 1984/85 , 1989/90)
 Super G World Cup 14th ( 1988/89 )
 Combination World Cup 15. ( 1985/86 )
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Departure 10 5 10
 

Helmut Höflehner (born November 24, 1959 in Gumpenberg , municipality of Haus im Ennstal ) is a former Austrian ski racer . The downhill specialist won ten races in the World Cup and the Downhill World Cup in the 1984/85 and 1989/90 seasons . The two-time Austrian champion was without a medal at major events , his best result at the Olympic Games and World Championships was fifth place in Sarajevo in 1984 .

biography

Beginnings and first Downhill World Cup victory (until 1985)

Höflehner skied for the first time at the age of four and celebrated his first victory in a district championship at the age of eleven. Further victories in the Landescup and inclusion in the squad of the Styrian Ski Association followed. In the mid-1970s, the trained car mechanic joined the roster of the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV). Since then, his main focus has been on the descent. Höflehner made his World Cup debut on January 20, 1978 on the Streif in Kitzbühel . In this replacement run for Heavenly Valley , he finished 33rd. Almost two years later he won his first World Cup points on January 6th, 1980 with 13th place in the downhill from Pra-Loup , at the end of the 1979/80 season he reached the first top 10 result in Lake Louise in sixth place .

Höflehner achieved numerous other top 10 placings, and thus also top 10 places in the Downhill World Cup, in the next two years before he stood on the podium for the first time on March 6, 1982 as third in the Aspen Downhill . In the previous month, Höflehner had for the first time participated in a major event, the 1982 World Cup in his immediate home town of Schladming , but in which he was only used in the combination that he finished in 17th place - with the fifth fastest downhill time. In his special discipline he has not yet been able to qualify for a World Cup start in the strong Austrian downhill team with Franz Klammer , Harti Weirather , Erwin Resch and others. In addition to the downhill, Höflehner also took part in combinations several times in the World Cup. In this discipline he achieved a total of four top 10 results from December 1982 to February 1986.

After Höflehner was third in Aspen in the 1982/83 season and had thus achieved his second podium, he celebrated his first World Cup victory on March 12, 1983 in the last downhill of the winter in Lake Louise. The second victory followed the next winter on February 2, 1984 in Cortina d'Ampezzo , with which he also secured a place in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo , which began six days later . There he drove as the second best Austrian and at the same time with the Swiss Urs Räber in fifth place. In 1984 he also won his first of two Austrian championship titles in the downhill.

The following season 1984/85 was his most successful for the time being: Höflehner started the winter with a victory on the Saslong in Val Gardena , won in January on the Lauberhorn in Wengen (replacement run for Bormio ) and at the Arlberg-Kandahar races in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and was second on the Hahnenkamm descent in Kitzbühel and third on the Panorama descent twice on the podium. With this, he secured the win of the Downhill World Cup with a lead of five points over the Swiss Peter Müller . At the 1985 World Cup in Bormio, Höflehner was one of the closest favorites, but he had to be content with seventh place on the Pista Stelvio .

Form deep and comeback (1985–1990)

In the first race of the following 1985/86 season , which began with two downhill runs in Las Leñas , Argentina, during the European summer , Höflehner finished third, which, however, remained his last podium for the next three years. In the winter of 1985/86 and in the 1986/87 season he achieved several top 10 placements, but for the first time since 1980 he did not make it into the top ten in the Downhill World Cup. He only just managed to qualify for the 1987 World Cup in Crans-Montana within the ÖSV team , where he was 14th in the downhill. As Höflehner in winter 1987/88 at all remained without top 10 result and could score only two runs and the first time in two super-G, he was on the brink of elimination from the Austrian team squad, the only head coach Hans Pum prevented has been.

Höflehner justified the trust placed in him and found his way back to the top of the world under downhill trainer Kurt Hoch , also a Styrian, and after a change of ski brand in the 1988/89 season. He won the downhill run from Val Gardena on December 10, 1988, celebrating his sixth World Cup victory, the first in almost four years. In doing so, he ended the dry spell of the entire Austrian downhill team, which has not had a World Cup victory since Anton Steiner in March 1986. Höflehner confirmed this success twelve days later when he also won the downhill run from St. Anton . A third place followed in Laax in January and a further four top 10 places in downhill runs by the end of the season, placing him in second place in the Downhill World Cup behind Marc Girardelli from Vorarlberg , who started for Luxembourg - after 37th place a year earlier. Höflehner also finished in the top ten twice in the Super-G, placing him fourteenth in this discipline and eighth in the overall World Cup. However, the 1989 World Cup in Vail was disappointing for him and all Austrian downhill skiers: Höflehner finished seventh as the best Austrian.

The 1989/90 World Cup winter was even more successful than the last : Höflehner made it onto the podium in seven of the nine seasonal runs and celebrated three victories in the two runs from Val-d'Isère and the second run within nine days at the end of January / beginning of February from Cortina d'Ampezzo. With this, he secured the Downhill World Cup early - for the second time after 1984/85 - which he finally won with 46 points ahead of Norwegian Atle Skårdal . With a few additional World Cup points from the Super-G - in this discipline he scored for the last time this winter, before concentrating only on the downhill in the last few years of his career - he also achieved fifth place in the overall World Cup.

The last years in the World Cup (1990-1994)

In the 1990/91 season Höflehner only won his first World Cup points in January when he was fourth in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and fifth in Kitzbühel. Nevertheless, he was also one of the closest favorites at the 1991 World Cup in Saalbach-Hinterglemm . There, however, he was again denied a medal win at major events: Even while pushing at the start he got stuck with his sticks between his skis, at the third goal the final failure occurred. After the failed World Cup, Höflehner achieved two third places in Aspen and Lake Louise, and he finished the Downhill World Cup in fourth position.

The 1991/92 season began as the previous year, with weaker results, but with the ranks six and four in Kitzbühel and the third in the Lauberhorn downhill from Wengen - his last podium finish in the World Cup - is Höflehner was within the Austrian team still for 1992 Winter Olympics qualify in Albertville . However, Höflehner could not implement the ascending form of the World Cup races before in the games, he only finished 17th in downhill rank.

In the following seasons 1992/93 and 1993/94 Höflehner could hardly follow up on the previous years. In 1992/93 he finished three times in the top ten, while in 1993/94 he only finished in the top 20 in one race, but once again attracted attention with fourth place in Chamonix . He failed to qualify for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer , and at the end of the 1993/94 season he ended his career at the age of 34. Today Höflehner, who is married and has two children, operates two chairlifts (“Höfi-Express”) in the Hauser Kaibling ski area .

successes

winter Olympics

World championships

World Cup ratings

Helmut Höflehner won the discipline classification twice in the downhill

season total Departure Super G combination
space Points space Points space Points space Points
1979/80 53. 17th 17th 17th - - - -
1980/81 30th 47 9. 47 - - - -
1981/82 24. 51 9. 51 - - - -
1982/83 24. 74 10. 65 - - 21st 9
1983/84 15th 85 6th 74 - - 18th 11
1984/85 8th. 116 1. 110 - - 32. 6th
1985/86 28. 71 12. 50 - - 15th 21st
1986/87 42. 31 13. 36 - - - -
1987/88 69. 12 37. 6th 25th 6th - -
1988/89 8th. 126 2. 112 14th 14th - -
1989/90 5. 174 1. 166 26th 8th - -
1990/91 20th 64 4th 64 - - - -
1991/92 39. 249 11. 249 - - - -
1992/93 58. 136 24. 136 - - - -
1993/94 74. 71 29 71 - - - -

World Cup victories

Höflehner achieved 25 podium places, including 10 victories:

date place country discipline
March 12, 1983 Lake Louise Canada Departure
2nd February 1984 Cortina d'Ampezzo Italy Departure
15th December 1984 Val Gardena Italy Departure
January 18, 1985 Wengen Switzerland Departure
January 26, 1985 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Germany Departure
December 10, 1988 Val Gardena Italy Departure
December 22, 1988 St. Anton Austria Departure
January 27, 1990 Val d'Isère France Departure
January 29, 1990 Val d'Isère France Departure
4th February 1990 Cortina d'Ampezzo Italy Departure

Austrian championships

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Triumph turned into trembling victory . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 21, 1978, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ↑ Law of the series broken . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 19, 1985, p. 15 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  3. ↑ a b Before being thrown out, now triumph: "Nice, because so important!" In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 12, 1988, p. 20 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized version).
  4. ^ Armin Assinger , Robert Seeger : Gold. Austria's biggest ski stars. Ueberreuter, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8000-7041-3 , p. 87.
  5. ↑ "Now I'm a little cable carer", article in the Standard from September 22, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Höflehner, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Gumpenberg (community house) , Austria