Manfred Graves

Manfred Graves
nation	Italy
birthday	7th December 1964
place of birth	Brunico
Career
discipline	Single seater, double seater
status	resigned
End of career	1998
Medal table
World championships 1 × 1 × 0 × European championships 2 × 2 × 1 × Junior European Championship 0 × 0 × 2 ×
Natural Track Luge World Championships gold Casies 1994 Two-seater silver Rautavaara 1998 Two-seater  European Natural Track Luge Championships gold Jesenice 1987 Single seater silver Garmisch-Partenk. 1989 Two-seater bronze Garmisch-Partenk. 1989 Single seater gold Kandalaksha 1995 Single seater silver Moos in Passeier 1997 Single seater  Natural track toboggan junior European Championship bronze Aosta 1982 Two-seater bronze Montreux 1983 Single seater
Placements in the Natural Track Luge World Cup
World Cup victories 2  Overall World Cup ES 1. ( 1994/1995 )  Overall World Cup DS 2. ( 1993/1994 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Single seater 1 6th 6th  Two-seater 1 5 0

Manfred Gräber (born December 7, 1964 in Bruneck ) is a former Italian natural track luge . He started in both a single and a doubles and became world champion in doubles in 1994 and European champion in singles in 1987 and 1995 . He also won another four medals at world and European championships and two medals at junior European championships. In the World Cup he won two races and achieved second place overall in the two-seater World Cup in the 1993/1994 season and overall victory in the single-seater World Cup in the 1994/1995 season. Gräber lives in St. Lorenzen .

Career

Manfred Gräber took part in the Junior European Championships from 1980 to 1983 . His best results were two third places, in 1982 in two-seater with Robert Dorfmann and in 1983 in single-seater. In 1983 he also competed in the general class for the first time at a European championship and achieved sixth place in the doubles with Ernst Oberhammer . His first medal and at the same time his first title in the general class, he won the single-seater victory at the 1987 European Championship in Jesenice . Two years later he won the bronze medal in the single seater at the European Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and, together with Ernst Marmsoler, the silver medal in the double seater. In 1993 he was fourth in the single-seater in Stein an der Enns .

In his first two World Cup appearances graves remained without a medal: 1990 , he was in Gsies sixth in the single-seater and with Ernst Marmsoler sixth in doubles, in 1992 , he scored in Bad Goisern seventh place in the single-seater. In the European Cup he was third in 1992 and second in the single seater in 1995. At the 1994 World Championships in Casies, Gräber and Günther Steinhauser won the gold medal in the two-seater and achieved fourth place in the single-seater. The following year he was at the European Championships in 1995 in Kandalakscha for the second time European champion in single-seater. In 1996, at the World Championships in Oberperfuss , the Italian was just fourth without a medal in the single-seater competition. At the European Championships in 1997 in Moos in Passeier he won the silver medal in the single-seater and at the 1998 World Championships in Rautavaara he won another silver medal in the double-seater together with Hubert Burger , while he took sixth place in the single-seater.

In the first World Cup season 1992/1993 , Gräber achieved two third places in the single-seater, but did not make it into the top six in the overall World Cup. At the beginning of the 1993/1994 season he celebrated the first World Cup victory in the doubles competition in Völs together with Günther Steinhauser. They won the race at the same time as their compatriots Almir Betemps and Corrado Herin , who also won all four other races of the season. Gräber and Steinhauser each achieved second place in the next three races and thus also in the overall double-seater World Cup behind Betemps / Herin. In the following years, Gräber was successful again in the single-seater. In the 1994/1995 season , in which only four World Cup races were held, he did not have a win, but with three second places and one third place he still won the overall World Cup. After a fifth place overall in the 1995/1996 season , he won his first and only single-seater World Cup race at the beginning of the 1996/1997 season in Rautavaara. In the overall World Cup he reached third place. In his last season, 1997/1998 , he achieved fifth place in the overall single-seater World Cup with two second places and one third place. Together with Hubert Burger, he achieved two second places in the doubles, which meant fourth place in the overall doubles World Cup.

Sporting successes

World championships

• Gsies 1990 : 6th single-seater, 6th double-seater (with Ernst Marmsoler)
• Bad Goisern 1992 : 7th single seater
• Gsies 1994 : 4th single-seater, 1st double-seater (with Günther Steinhauser)
• Oberperfuss 1996 : 4th single seater
• Rautavaara 1998 : 6th single-seater, 2nd double-seater (with Hubert Burger)

European championships

• St. Konrad : 6th two-seater (with Ernst Oberhammer)
• Jesenice 1987 : 1st single seater
• Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1989 : 3rd single-seater, 2nd double-seater (with Ernst Marmsoler)
• Stein an der Enns 1993 : 4th single seater
• Kandalaksha 1995 : 1st single seater
• Moos in Passeier 1997 : 2nd single seater

Junior European Championships

• St. Lorenzen 1980 : 8th two-seater (with Oskar Gräber)
• Stumm 1981 : 4th single-seater, 5th double-seater (with Rainer Thomaseth)
• Aosta 1982 : 6th single-seater, 3rd double-seater (with Robert Dorfmann)
• Montreux 1983 : 3rd single-seater, 6th double-seater (with Robert Dorfmann)

World cup

• Overall victory in the single-seater World Cup in the 1994/1995 season
• 2nd place in the overall double-seater World Cup in the 1993/1994 season (with Günther Steinhauser)
• 3rd place in the overall single-seater World Cup in the 1996/1997 season
• A total of 19 podium places (13 in single and 6 in double)
• 2 World Cup victories:

date	place	country	discipline
January 16, 1994	Völs	Italy	Two-seater
December 22, 1996	Rautavaara	Finland	Single seater

literature

• Harald Steyrer, Herbert Wurzer, Egon Theiner: 50 years FIL 1957 - 2007. The history of the International Luge Federation in three volumes . tape II . Egoth Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902480-46-0 , p. 285-397 .