Thaler started for the Imst toboggan club . He was one of the most successful luge athletes in the 1960s and competed in both the single and the doubles. In 1961 he and Herbert Thaler won the silver medal behind Reinhold Frosch / Ewald Walch in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the Luge World Championships . A year later he and Reinhold Senn came third in Girenbad . At the Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck in 1964 , Thaler won the silver medal at Senn's side behind Josef Feistmantl and Manfred Stengl in the first luge competition of the Olympic Games. At the European Championships in 1967, the Thaler / Senn duo won another silver medal behind Feistmantl and Wilhelm Bichl . At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble , Thaler started in a single-seater and reached 14th place. In 1966, 1967 and 1968 he won the Austrian championship title in the doubles. After his active career, he was the coach of the Austrian national luge team from 1973 to 1988.
Web links
Helmut Thaler in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
Austria
