Karl Graf (ski racer)

Karl Graf (* 1904 ; † 1993 ) was a Swiss ski racer in the 1930s.

Career

Karl Graf was a mountain farmer all his life and also worked as a mountain guide and ski instructor. He did not contest his first competition until the age of 28 when he took part in the Lauberhorn race in 1932. Just a year later he achieved his first major success with third place in the downhill race at the Arlberg-Kandahar race . In the years that followed, the Swiss became a winner in downhill and slalom and celebrated countless successes. In 1934 he became Swiss slalom champion in Andermatt . The sports newspaper "Sport" wrote: "Graf is robust like Zogg and agile like Steuri , a rare but successful combination."

In the year of the FIS races in Mürren , which were later declared world championships, he won the Grand Prix of Megève organized by the Paris Ski Club at the start of the season in 1935 and also stayed in the downhill skiing and alpine combination in the races between Swiss and Norwegians, which were intended as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup successful in Wengen . At the world championship itself, he finished fifth in downhill (winner Franz Zingerle ) and alpine combination (winner Toni Seelos ). Karl Graf had bad luck at the 1936 World Championships in Innsbruck , where he was deprived of the world championship title due to a mistake by an official in downhill skiing on Patscherkofel . Despite this incident, the Swiss team, Walter Prager and David Zogg, took the first two places.

Greatest successes

• 5th place in downhill skiing at the 1935 World Championships in Mürren
• 5th place in slalom at the World Championships in Mürren in 1935
• Swiss champion in slalom in Andermatt 1934
• Winner of the 1935 Megève Grand Prix

Web links

• Karl Graf in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)