Josef Trixl-Hellensteiner
Josef Trixl-Hellensteiner (born October 26, 1889 in St. Johann in Tirol ; † December 7, 1980 there ) was an Austrian cyclist and skier. He was the first Tyrolean to take part in the Olympic Games.
Life
Josef Hellensteiner was born out of wedlock to the day laborer Elisabeth Hellensteiner in St. Johann in Tirol and was adopted by the Trixl sisters in Wiesenstall in the Reitham district of St. Johann . He rarely used the associated name suffix Trixl. He and his partner Veronika Landegg ran the mountain farm Wiesenstall for decades and died on December 7, 1980 in St. Johann in Tirol. In 1954, Hellensteiner was made an honorary member of the St. Johann ski club.
Cycling
As a cyclist, Josef Hellensteiner came second in the Austrian road championship in 1911 and third in the race "Around the Tyrolean Glaciers" (approx. 320 km) and in the road championship in Tyrol.
1912 was his most successful year. The Kitzbüheler Bote reports on a race:
“On August 11, 1912, the road championship of the Tyrolean Cyclists Association from Innsbruck to Kitzbühel was held over 100 km. The departure from Innsbruck took place at 5:10 am in pouring rain. The streets were sodden and the fog hung down into the valley. In Söll, Josef Hellensteiner hung up his companions and stormed to the goal alone. His head start was so great that he was able to engage in a long conversation with a farmer in his hometown and, moreover, was able to afford the luxury of a spray bath at a fountain, which he repeated in Oberndorf. He was Tyrolean road champion with 3.54.30. "
In 1912, Hellensteiner also won the Tyrolean Mountain Championship and the competition around the glaciers as well as the elimination for the 5th Summer Olympics in Stockholm in 1912. After a 320 km competition around Lake Mälaren , he finished the Olympic cycling race as 45th among 120 participants, about an hour behind the winner. In the team competition, he and his teammates Robert Rammer , Adolf Kofler and Rudolf Kramer achieved seventh place for Austria .
In the following year, Hellensteiner entered the professional camp, but his successes failed, and in 1914 the sporting business ended with the outbreak of the First World War. After the war, Hellensteiner was amateurized again. He became Tyrolean mountain champion three more times and was the only Austrian to take part in the 1923 road world championship in Zurich . He said goodbye to cycling as the winner of the Innsbruck - Reutte - Innsbruck road race in 1933.
Sepp Hellensteiner was not only the first Tyrolean Olympic participant, but also the first professional sportsman and the first again amateurized athlete in the country.
Skiing
Hellensteiner's teacher, Johann Siber, in the small school in the St. Johann district Jodler introduced him to skiing at an early age, and at the age of 20, Hellensteiner was a founding member of the St. Johann in Tirol winter sports club. For his first ski boots, Hellensteiner brought the skis to the shoemaker's workshop so that the front part of the boot could be designed exactly after baking.
In 1909/10, Hellensteiner learned the so-called “Norwegian technique” from the Norwegian ski instructor Jacob Schappel-Jacobsen. After that, he worked as a ski instructor himself. First in Schliersee (1912), then in the so-called Hinterdux near Kufstein and from 1924 as head of the Arlberg School, where he worked closely with ski pioneer Hannes Schneider . After all, in the 1930s he headed the combined ski schools in Kitzbühel , where he worked as a ski instructor until around 1970 even after the Second World War.
As a ski racer, he achieved notable success in regional competitions. In 1910 he won the Schmittenhöhe race , where he even defeated the famous army athlete Georg Bilgeri .
literature
- Hans Wirtenberger: Tyrol's first Olympian was a St. Johann . in: Between Kaiser, Kalkstein and Horn, St. Johann in Tirol, 2002.
- Hans Wirtenberger: Julius Moro - Leo Gasperl - Sepp Hellensteiner. Three personalities from the pioneering days of Kitzbühel winter sports . in: Kitzbühel's way into the 20th century, Kitzbühel 1999.
Web links
- Josef Trixl-Hellensteiner in the Radsportseiten.net database
- Josef Trixl-Hellensteiner in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Trixl-Hellensteiner, Josef |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hellensteiner, Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian cyclist and ski athlete |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 26, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Johann in Tirol |
| DATE OF DEATH | 7th December 1980 |
| Place of death | St. Johann in Tirol |