Klaus Kroell

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Klaus Kroell Alpine skiing
Klaus Kröll at the Austrian championships in March 2008
Klaus Kröll in March 2008
nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday 24th April 1980 (age 40)
place of birth Öblarn , Austria
size 186 cm
Weight 95 kg
Career
discipline Downhill , super-G
society Sport Union Öblarn
status resigned
End of career February 25, 2017
Medal table
Junior World Championship 2 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
FIS Alpine Ski Junior World Championships
gold Pra-Loup 1999 Departure
gold Québec 2000 Super G
silver Québec 2000 Departure
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut January 8, 2000
 Individual world cup victories 6th
 Overall World Cup 7th ( 2011/12 )
 Downhill World Cup 1st (2011/12)
 Super G World Cup 5th (2011/12)
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Departure 4th 6th 11
 Super G 2 1 0
 

Klaus Kröll (born April 24, 1980 in Öblarn ) is a former Austrian ski racer . He specialized in the downhill and super-G disciplines. Kröll won six World Cup races and the Downhill World Cup in the 2011/12 season . In addition, he achieved three top 10 placements at World Championships and Olympic Games . He was also twice junior world champion and Austrian champion . With 156 downhill races he is the record holder in this World Cup discipline.

biography

Beginnings

Klaus Kröll attended elementary school in his home town of Öblarn and then secondary school in Stein an der Enns . After a one-year intermezzo at the agricultural college in Gröbming , he graduated from the ski trade school in Schladming from 1995 to 1999 . Kröll joined the Styrian school squad as a 14-year-old and drove the first FIS races in the 1995/1996 season after reaching the age limit . In the next winter he had to take a break for almost the entire season due to an injury.

Kröll was accepted into the squad of the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV) in 1998 and developed early into a specialist in the fast super-G disciplines and, above all, downhill . He celebrated his first major successes at the Junior World Championships in 1999 and 2000 : in 1999 he won the gold medal in the downhill in Pra-Loup and in 2000 in Mont Sainte-Anne gold in the super-G and silver in the downhill. In the same years he was Austrian youth champion in the downhill. In the European Cup he also showed good performances in these years. He achieved several top 10 placings (including a second place in the downhill from Falcade on January 21, 1999) and came in the 1998/99 and 1999/2000 seasons in the top ten in the downhill classification. The final breakthrough in the European Cup came in the 2000/01 season . With two victories in the downhill runs from Altenmarkt-Zauchensee and Sestriere and another two podium places, he and his compatriot Norbert Holzknecht took second place in the downhill classification with the same number of points. This secured him a permanent place in the World Cup for the next winter as well as the promotion to the A-squad of the ÖSV.

First successes in the World Cup

Kröll had already contested his first two World Cup races in the winter of 1999/2000 . On his debut in Downhill from Chamonix on January 8, 2000, he won his first World Cup point in 30th place, but two months later he did not finish in the Super-G in Bormio . After he had only started in the European Cup in winter 2000/2001 and had fought for a permanent place in the World Cup, his actual entry into the World Cup was quite successful in the 2001/02 season . In the first season descent on December 8, 2001 in Val-d'Isère , he reached seventh place and at the end of the month he just missed his first podium finish in the downhill on the Pista Stelvio in Bormio. After further top 10 results, Kröll stood on the winners' podium for the first time in a World Cup race on December 14, 2002 when he finished second behind Stephan Eberharter in the downhill run from Val-d'Isère. With further good results, he made it into the top ten in the Downhill World Cup for the first time in the 2002/03 season . At first, however, it was not used for major events. At the Olympic Winter Games in 2002 he narrowly failed in the ÖSV internal qualification to Christian Greber and at the World Cup in 2003 he was not set up by the Austrian team management after the training run intended as a qualification had to be canceled.

In the World Cup, Kröll achieved top 10 results on a regular basis in the 2003/04 season , from which he concentrated almost exclusively on the downhill for several years. But since he fell back a bit in the 2004/05 season and fourth place in Bormio was his only top result that winter, he was not used in the 2005 World Cup . The 2005/06 season went better again , in which Kröll achieved his second World Cup podium with second place in the downhill from Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 28, 2006. After a successful internal qualification for the fourth place on the grid for the start of the Olympic Winter Games in Turin in 2006 , Kröll came to his first appearance at a major event alongside the regular starters Michael Walchhofer , Hermann Maier and Fritz Strobl . In the Olympic Downhill he fell short of his expectations with 22nd place. At the end of winter, Kröll suffered a fracture of the head of his tibia and other injuries in a fall in Åre , which meant that he had to take a three-month break. In the 2006/07 season , Kröll drove in three World Cup runs under the top ten, but this was not enough for participation in the 2007 World Cup . On February 29, 2008, he was on the podium for the third time with a third place in the downhill from Kvitfjell , which was the first time in five years that he was among the top ten in the Downhill World Cup. In addition, he was Austrian downhill champion in 2008 .

At the top of the world

After Kröll had already achieved numerous top 10 results and several podium finishes in the last six years in the World Cup, but had not yet achieved the final breakthrough, he caught up with the absolute world elite in the 2008/09 season . In addition to the downhill, he now started again regularly in the Super-G, after having only participated in two World Cup Super-Gs in the last five years. In the Super-G, he finally achieved his first World Cup victory when he was 22 hundredths of a second faster than the runner-up Aksel Lund Svindal on January 23, 2009 on the Streif in Kitzbühel , although Kröll had fallen in training eight days earlier for the World Cup downhill in Wengen had broken three carpal bones and had to start with a special cuff. The next day he finished third in the Hahnenkamm downhill, after having finished second in the Bormio downhill four weeks earlier this winter for the first time. With these results, he had clearly qualified for participation in the 2009 World Cup in Val-d'Isère, where the medal contender did not quite reach the top with ninth place in the downhill and tenth place in the Super-G. One month after the World Championships, Kröll celebrated his second World Cup victory on the downhill from Kvitfjell, with which he finished second in the Downhill World Cup behind Michael Walchhofer .

In the winter of 2009/10 , Kröll was unable to match the previous year's World Cup successes . A third place in the downhill from Kvitfjell was his best result of the season, only two more times he was in the top ten, in the Super-G he was not in the fastest 15 in any race. In the 2010/11 season , however, Kröll returned the world's best. He celebrated his third World Cup victory on January 15, 2011 in the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen, achieved three further podium places in the downhill and Super-G and came third in the Downhill World Cup. At major events, however, he still failed to make it onto the podium. While he finished ninth in the downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics , he finished eleventh in this discipline at the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen . In the Super-G he was not at the start on both occasions, as his Super-G results in the run-up to the World Cup were not enough for a line-up in the 2010/2011 season.

The 2011/12 season was Kröll's most successful in the World Cup. He won a Super-G and two runs and achieved podium positions in three other runs. This was the first time in his career that he won a discipline world cup in the downhill, just seven points ahead of Swiss Beat Feuz . In the Super-G, in addition to his victory, he drove three times under the top five, making him fifth in the Super-G World Cup and, in addition to the downhill, also achieved his best overall result in this discipline. Shortly after the end of the season, Kröll injured his right foot while riding motocross . After an operation, he had to take a break for several months, and he could not start snow training again until the beginning of October.

Injury, comeback and end of career

At the beginning of the next World Cup winter 2012/13 , Kröll was back on the podium in third place in the first descent in Lake Louise . With three more podium places in Wengen, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Kvitfjell, he finally took second place in the discipline ranking. In fourth place, he just missed the desired medal win at the 2013 World Cup . On March 14, 2013 Kröll had a hard crash at the Super-G in Lenzerheide (his last race of the season); he suffered a fracture of the left upper arm with involvement of the humeral head. At the beginning of the 2013/14 season , Kröll finished second in the first descent from Lake Louise. However, he could no longer maintain this level. In the further course of the winter, restricted by the consequences of the fall in Lenzerheide, he did not get past 14th place.

On December 17, 2016, Kröll contested his 150th World Cup descent in a row in Val Gardena , which is a specialty in view of the high risk of injury in alpine ski racing. On the downhill run in Kvitfjell on February 24, 2017, he contested his 155th World Cup downhill run, which equaled Kristian Ghedina's existing record . The next day he surpassed this mark and is now the sole record holder. It is noteworthy that he completed 155 of his 156 World Cup runs in a row. Since Kröll could not qualify for the World Cup finals, the 156th descent was also his last. He ended his career on the same day.

successes

Olympic games

World championships

World Cup ratings

season total Departure Super G
space Points space Points space Points
1999/00 134. 1 60. 1 -
2000/01 - - - - - -
2001/02 33. 248 16. 205 24. 43
2002/03 27. 325 10. 317 50. 8th
2003/04 29 290 12. 290 - -
2004/05 46. 155 20th 155 - -
2005/06 32. 283 12. 216 25th 67
2006/07 48. 158 21st 158 - -
2007/08 41. 232 8th. 232 - -
2008/09 12. 566 2. 424 8th. 142
2009/10 35. 214 12. 164 25th 50
2010/11 10. 579 3. 411 12. 168
2011/12 7th 909 1. 605 5. 304
2012/13 12. 485 2. 381 14th 104
2013/14 43. 177 17th 160 37. 17th
2014/15 64. 104 22nd 104 - -
2015/16 63. 154 23. 145 51. 9
2016/17 95. 55 28. 55 - -

World Cup victories

Kröll achieved 24 podium places, including 6 wins:

date place country discipline
January 23, 2009 Kitzbühel Austria Super G
March 7, 2009 Kvitfjell Norway Departure
January 15, 2011 Wengen Switzerland Departure
3rd February 2012 Chamonix France Departure
March 2, 2012 Kvitfjell Norway Super G *
March 3, 2012 Kvitfjell Norway Departure

* at the same time as Beat Feuz

European Cup

  • 2000/01 season : 2nd downhill classification
  • 6 podium places, including 2 wins

Junior World Championships

More Achievements

literature

Web links

Commons : Klaus Kröll  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Kröll won medals at Austrian youth championships. ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ÖSV winner board, accessed on November 20, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oesv.at
  2. ↑ a b Kröll with the best time to the fixed place. derStandard.at, February 12, 2006, accessed on November 20, 2011.
  3. ↑ Kröll suffers a fractured tibial head.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Skiinfo.de, March 17, 2006, accessed November 20, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / magazin.skiinfo.de  
  4. ↑ Best time for Jerman in Wengen: The Austrians are unlucky with injuries.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Skiinfo.de, January 15, 2009, accessed on November 20, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / magazin.skiinfo.de  
  5. ↑ Compulsory break for Holaus: Kröll was seriously injured.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Skiinfo.de, January 20, 2009, accessed on November 20, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / magazin.skiinfo.de  
  6. ↑ Kröll makes Kitzbühel cheer: Victory on the Streifalm redeems ÖSV.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Skiinfo.de, January 23, 2009, accessed on November 20, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / magazin.skiinfo.de  
  7. ↑ Comeback after foot surgery. sport.orf.at, October 2, 2012, accessed on October 2, 2012.
  8. ↑ Super-G in Lenzerheide: Kröll crashes badly - women's race canceled. Spiegel Online, March 14, 2013, accessed March 14, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Kröll before 150th departure in a row. Laola1.tv , December 16, 2016, accessed January 20, 2017 .
  10. ↑ "That's it": Kröll ends his career. oe24.at, February 25, 2017, accessed on February 25, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Kröll, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Öblarn , Austria