Nordic World Ski Championships 1941

Nordic World Ski Championships 1941 (unofficial)
winner
Cross-country skiing 18 km	Alfred Dahlqvist
Cross-country skiing 50 km	Jussi Kurikkala
4 × 10 km cross-country relay	Finland
Ski jumping normal hill	Paavo Vierto
Nordic combination	Gustl Berauer
Competitions
Venues	Cortina d'Ampezzo
Individual competitions	4th
Team competitions	1 (+1 unofficial)
← Zakopane 1939	St. Moritz 1948 →

The Nordic World Ski Championships in 1940 were to take place in Norway . However, due to the events of the war, the World Cup was canceled. Contemporary reports indicate that this measure was controversial. Opponents of the rejection submitted that z. B. the Norwegian championships in the same year could be held without problems.

The Italian winter sports resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo organized the Nordic World Ski Championships for the period from February 1 to 10, 1941 . The FIS subsequently declared this invalid at a congress in Pau in 1946 , as many nations could not take part due to the Second World War . Medals were awarded, but after the FIS decision of 1946 they lost their official status and are no longer counted.

Despite the official absence of the athletes from Norway , the Scandinavians again exercised a high dominance. Only in the Nordic combined and in the cross-country relay other nations apart from the Finns and Swedes could win medals.

Cross-country skiing men

• Detailed results

Cross-country skiing 18 km

space	athlete	country	time
1	Alfred Dahlqvist	Sweden	1: 05: 25.0 h
2	Juho Kurikkala	Finland	1: 07: 35.2 h
3	Lauri Silvennoinen	Finland	1: 08: 13.0 h
4th	Aristide Compagnoni	Italy	1:08:15 h
5	Valter Forssell	Finland	1: 08: 23.0 h
6th	Carl Pahlin	Sweden	1: 08: 28.0 h
7th	Donald Johansson	Sweden	1: 08: 38.0 h
8th	Martin Matsbo	Sweden	1: 08: 58.4 h
9	Gustav Berauer	German Empire	1: 09: 08.0 h
10	Martti Lauronen	Finland	1: 09: 14.2 h

Date: Wednesday February 5, 1941

For the 18 km run, which was also used for the Nordic combined, 96 runners were on the start list, including 11 from Switzerland, although Adolf Freiburghaus had decided not to do so because he wanted to spare himself for the 50 km run .
It had snowed heavily on the night of February 5th, and it had become cold towards morning. A company from Alpini had laid a very splendid meter-wide track and also an exemplary stick track next to it, so that the conditions in sunshine were exemplary.
The slope led right into the valley, starting with a 3 km long slope, and then came on the left side of the valley over to the culmination point, over the Faloria, then down and over the stream, after which it went sharply upwards at 100 m. A total of 600 m gradient had to be overcome. The start and finish were in the ice rink, with the German Reich Sports Leader Hans von Tschammer und Osten acting as the starter .
A total of 84 runners started, one of whom gave up. Although 4 Swedes and 4 Finns each appeared in the first ten, there was talk (written) of a “new era in FIS history”, because the Central Europeans had been able to intervene in the fight with respectable success and eight runners were already in the third place One minute apart, but the entire ranking showed the same picture with just seconds apart. The class difference had become smaller. Winner Alfred Dahlqvist, also called "Hasjö-Dahlqvist" (after his hometown Hasjö ) practically as a special kind of recognition, had a special position. In addition to the "Norsker duel" Sweden versus Finland there was also a Central European one, with Germany leading the way with Berauer (who was thus the sure winner in the special classification of the combined runners), before Aristide Compagnoni even let the Finns and Swedes look up with No. 92 - and Italy achieved 102 ranking points with its six best and was ahead of Germany (145 ranking points). Among the Swiss, Adi Gamma was the best in 31st place (and 3rd place in the combination).

Endurance run 50 km

space	athlete	country	time
1	Juho Kurikkala	Finland	3: 35: 35.8 h
2	Alfred Dahlqvist	Sweden	3: 41: 44.0 h
3	Elis Wiklund	Sweden	3: 42: 44.0 h
4th	Lars Back	Sweden	3: 47: 27.0 h
5	Adolf Freiburghaus	Switzerland	1: 08: 23.0 h
6th	Martti Lauronen	Finland	3: 48: 37.0 h
7th	Kalle Jalkanen	Finland	3: 51: 33.0 h
8th	Hans Kasebacher	German Empire	3: 53: 00.0 h
9	Hjalmar Lauri	Finland	4: 01: 12.0 h
10	Silvio Confortola	Italy	4: 01: 54.0 h

Date: Saturday, February 8, 1941

Participants: 47 named; 32 started; 18 rated;

The Swede Mauritz Brännström , originally placed second with a running time of 3: 38: 17.0, did not appear at a checkpoint and was therefore subsequently removed from the ranking on February 9th.

Lt. Reports from “Sport Zürich” had named 45, had started 31 runners and ten had given up (2 Swedes, 5 Finns and one Italian and one German) - and the Slovak Zubor was the last to cross the finish line. Demetz reported that after a ski break he continued to run on replacement skis and that he broke again.
For Switzerland, not only the fifth place (initially sixth, then) fifth place in Freiburghaus was one of the greatest successes, but also that it was possible to get all four starters into the ranking, while other nations had to take note of tasks. A fifth place was also achieved in Vysoké Tatry in 1935 by Kilian Ogi , also back then in the 50 km competition (also at that time the Zurich H. Müller in 11th place). Adi Gamma started instead of the planned Borghi.
The athletes' biggest opponents were the warm temperatures and the Scirocco : at the start it was already 2 degrees above zero, which even rose to 6 degrees in the shade. The competitors were desperate, they had to grow again several times along the way, Freiburghaus did it three times, Kurikkala four times. Between kilometers 23 and 30 and also in the final section, the runners had to fight against the stormy wind. Olkinuora, after 15 km the fastest (1:51 before the second Kurikkala there) stopped after 25 km. The second German, Kasebacher, had start no. 1 and therefore no orientation - he started first, crossed the finish line first, from kilometer 25 he dropped from intermediate rank 7 to final rank 9.
Mauritz Brännström (later taken out of the classification), started six minutes before Kurikkala, ran through the stadium at the same time as Kurikkala halfway through the race and arrived long before the Finn at the end of the race, which suggested that he ran the second part very quickly was (four minutes faster than Kurikkala) and might have won had the race not been over. After 25 km the Swede was in 6th place in 1:49:27 - Kurikkala was the first to have 1:43:25 and after 40 km was 2:51:13 ahead of Brännström (2:55:00).

4 × 10 km relay

space	athlete	country	time
1	Martti Lauronen Juho Kurikkala Lauri Silvennoinen Eino Olkinuora	Finland	2: 31: 07.69
2	Carl Pahlin Donald Johansson Nils Östensson Alfred Dahlqvist	Sweden	2: 32: 15.42 h
3	Aristide Compagnoni Severino Compagnoni Alberto Jammaron Giulio Gerardi	Italy	2: 33: 50.21 h
4th	Josef Gstrein Hermann Azzolini Vinzenz Demetz Gustav Berauer	German Empire	2: 38: 10.82 h
5	Adolf Freiburghaus Victor Borghi Walter Fux Adi Gamma	Switzerland	2: 50: 26.23 h
6th	Josef Šoltéz Lukáš Michalák Bretislav Cagašík Karol Bruk	Slovakia	3: 07: 34.20

Date: Monday February 3, 1941

Participants: 6 teams registered; 6 started; 6 rated;

The German team sat down exclusively from participants fee retained countries ( Austria , Czechoslovakia ) and out opted South Tyrolean , which is now in Innsbruck were located and the local ski club belonged together.

The Swiss determined the composition of the relay team in a training run on January 31, in which their other cross-country skiers and also the participants in the military patrol took part. The Finns and Swedes were favored. The race was conducted over two loops of 10 km each, which were driven alternately. The first was the more difficult one, it led over the eastern slopes of the valley straight up from the stadium, then it went flat and on again hilly terrain at 1,454 m. Then it went to 1,150 m, the lowest point, after which there was a longer ascent. The other was laid out west of Cortina, the highest point near the Gedinasee was 1,449 m.
For the time being, a surprise loomed, because after the first 10 kilometers Italy with Aristide Compagnoni was in 38: 58.51 ahead of Finland (39: 23.66) and Sweden (40: 38.73), Germany, Switzerland and Slovakia were ahead the further order. It had never been in the history of the "FIS races" (meaning world championships) that someone other than a Nordic rider took the lead in a relay. And this was especially remarkable because the Italian team had "lost" two of their best runners (Azzolini and Demetz) to Germany. But the Finnish team was by no means scared, Kurikkala was already the one who initiated the Suomi victory and (seen in retrospect) was faster than all the Swedes and 3.5 minutes faster than Silvestro Compagnoni. The intermediate ranking was now Finland in 1: 14: 40.81 ahead of Italy (1: 16: 51: 19), Sweden (1: 17: 41.76) - nothing had changed in the other places and nothing should have changed to change.
For the third section, Sweden had used its new “wonder runner” (also dubbed “man of the season”), and Östensson also managed to catch Jammaron, but after 5 km it turned out that he was not only doing nothing on Silvennoinen caught up, but lost more seconds, but he was able to reduce the gap on the rest of the way and achieve a time that was 20 seconds better than the Finn. The tension among the Italians now lay in the extent to which Jammaron could prevail against his ex-comrade Demetz. Intermediate ranking: 1. Finland 1: 52: 58.81; 2. Sweden 1: 55: 30.24; 3. Italy 1: 56.54.00.
For Sweden, Dahlqvist was the last hope, but he would have preferred an icy slope. Although Olkinuora was already far away, the Swede did not give up, he was also able to catch up, but that did not frighten the leader, even though he only achieved fourth-best time behind Dahlqvist, Gerardi and Berauer.
The overall analysis of the Swiss, who had expected more, was that they did not get on with the terrain as desired, which is why it was suggested to train for future major events on routes which are identical to the world championship course. In any case, they weren't as bad as they looked 12 minutes behind, only starting runner Freiburghaus, who had caught the wrong wax, had lost too much with 3 minutes in 4th place; this increased to 5.8 minutes with Borghi, which was no longer an incentive for the other two to get everything out of themselves.

Ski jumping men

• Detailed results

Large hill K-70

space	athlete	country	Width 1	Width 2	grade
1	Paavo Vierto	Finland	64.5 m	75.5 m	221.50
2	Leo Laakso	Finland	67.5 m	72.0 m	220.50
3	Sven Erikson (Selånger)	Sweden	63.0 m	73.5 m	218.30
4th	Josef Weiler	German Empire	67.0 m	76.5 m	217.70
5	Josef Bradl	German Empire	63.0 m	74.5 m	216.40
6th	Erik Lindström	Sweden	62.0 m	72.0 m	215.80
7th	Niilo Toppila	Finland	63.0 m	70.5 m	214.17
8th	Heinrich Klopfer	German Empire	61.5 m	71.5 m	212.40
9	Randmod Soerensen	Norway	62.0 m	71.0 m	211.40
10	Heinz Palme	German Empire	62.0 m	71.0 m	209.90
10	Paul Kraus	German Empire	61.5 m	69.5 m	209.90

Date: Sunday February 9, 1941

Ski jump: Trampolino Italia (K-70)

As with the 50 km, it was warm spring, but there was no wind. It thawed, you walked in shirt sleeves. When 10,000 spectators came, 47 jumpers were registered for the two rounds, only 40 started, the Swiss Walter Fux opened. The run-up in the first round was very limited, the Italian Bruno da Col did not compete after a fall. There were three falls in the second run. It was negative that several local jumpers who were still in the learning phase were allowed to take part, although they had no place in such a class competition.
For the German jumpers, the result was disappointing, because Selånger, in third place, was 7 m shorter in width than Weiler, who had surpassed all competitors by 3.5 m, but the judges, who paid more attention to the jump , valued its excellent style very highly. Weiler was definitely better than Bradl, who was not at his best, and it was immediately obvious that he would not be able to defend his title from Zakopane. Weiler was a one-eyed jumper, he had lost an eye in a fall in Sestriere two years ago and still continued his career. In any case, it was questioned whether the style should continue to be so important or whether the jump lengths should primarily be decisive. The Swiss themselves benefited from the style rating in this jumping. The conclusion was that the participants only had up to half the class to take part in a world championship - and only the first six were able to replace the missing Norwegians (the only participating Randmod Sörensen was no longer Norwegian top class).

Nordic combined men

• Detailed results

Individual (large hill K-70/18 km)

space	athlete	country	Points
1	Gustav Berauer	German Empire	431.8
2	Pauli salons	Finland	414.8
3	Josef Gstrein	German Empire	406.2
4th	Kalervo Kaplas	Finland	392.4
5	Timo Murama	Finland	391.6
6th	Sven Selånger	Sweden	391.5
7th	Bruno Da Col	Italy	390.6
8th	Hans Lahr	German Empire	389.3
9	Walter Fux	Switzerland	388.7
10	Niilo Nikunen	Finland	387.6

Date: Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th February 1941

Venues: Cross-country skiing: Cortina d'Ampezzo ; Ski jumping: Trampolino Italia

Participants: 27 started; 22 rated;

The German participants Gustl Berauer and Hans Lahr came from the annexed Sudetenland ( Czechoslovakia ), Josl Gstrein from the connected Ostmark ( Austria ).

The five best combiners after cross-country skiing were Berauer ahead of Gstrein, Gamma, Salonen (in 1: 13: 25.1 on rank 32 in the overall classification of the 18 km) and Kraus.
Several thousands of spectators had come to jump, the diving tower was 48 m high and impressively demonstrated the acrobatics of ski jumping. The hill was in excellent condition, not a single participant fell. In addition to the judges' stands, there were also film and press stands and a large display board.
The jumping was dominated by the "old veteran" Sven Selånger , who was still in a class of its own. He achieved the maximum distance in both runs with 63 and 67 meters, which enabled him to improve from 22nd to 6th. Berauer practically only needed to stand his jumps halfway, he came to 56.5 and 57 m (a bit shaky on the second, but he held on) - and thus his superior victory was certain. Salonen succeeded in displacing Gstrein with 57 and 60 m, who came in at 57 and 58.5 m, each had a bit of reserve and, above all, had significant deficits in style. Lantschner jumped 61 and 60 m, Klotz 53 and 56 and Russi (known as a weak jumper) reached 47 and 49 m.

Military patrol run

Team competition

As part of the World Cup, as in the 1936 Winter Olympics , a military patrol run was held, which, however, was not part of the official World Cup program. The result was therefore not included in the medal table. The participating teams consisted of four soldiers each, led by an officer who carried a pistol and did not participate in the shooting competitions himself, as well as one non-commissioned officer rank and two team ranks. Teams from seven nations competed.

space	athlete	country	time
1	Wilhelm Hjukström , Lieutenant Martin Matsbo , Hauptgefreiter Nils Östensson , Sergeant Gosta Andersson , Sergeant	Sweden	2:13:21 h
2	Günther Meergans , Lieutenant Heinrich Schaumann , NCO Josef Gstrein , Private Alfred Rößner , hunter	German Empire	2:20:17 h
3	Luigi Perenni (Alois Prenn) , Lt. Achille Compagnoni , NCO Maurizio Celeste Giovani Fantoni	Italy	2:23:55 h
4th	Robert Zurbriggen , OLt.Willy Bernath Heinz von Allmen Hans Schoch	Switzerland	2:28:12 h
5	Zdenko Švigelj , Lt. ? Grumble, Wm. ? Jazbec, Sdt. Jože Knific , Sdt.	Yugoslavia	2:48:38 h
6th	? Kukliš, Lt. Karol Bruk , Wm. ? Konček, Kp. Vincent Hudáček , Kp.	Slovakia	2:49:23 h
DNF	Pekka Vanninen , Lt. Arvi Vanninen , Feldw. ? Heliste, Kp. Sauli Rytky , WM	Finland	-

Date: Friday, February 7, 1941;

Participants: 7 teams registered; 7 started; 6 rated;

For the military patrol run, each representative of a nation had drawn the starting numbers for another country, with Switzerland receiving the best from Germany with 7, while Switzerland reciprocated for the hospitality and gave the Italians the 6. Germany was number one ahead of Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.
Lightweight trousers made by Italians with no fasteners with elastic in the waistband were not permitted. The start was at 9.30 a.m., the intervals were 3 minutes, the 25 km long route was divided into 5 sections, initially going south. The second section was said to be the most difficult. There was a total of 1,000 m ascent. The certainly difficult run (the participants were packed with 12 kg) was made easier by the wonderful weather and excellent snow conditions.
Sweden was in a class of its own, always leading, there was no way for the other nations to get close. The first Finnish runner, Arvi Vanninen , fell after 2 km at the crossing to the stream bridge and suffered not only a broken ski but also a broken armpit. After the first section, Germany (here Gstrein had to replace Gefr. Moll who had lost his hand with blood poisoning), Switzerland and Italy were in the pursuit. A fall from Oberlt. Bernath, who had suffered a tie defect and a shin injury, let Switzerland fall behind Italy. After the fourth section, the shooting was done on a practice range, where balloons had to be hit - and Gstrein was the first shooter to aim at the wrong one. Both Italy and the Swiss (Schoch, Zurbriggen, van Allmen) shot quickly and safely and got away with no time penalty. Unfortunately for the Swiss it was that Schoch suffered a seizure while trying to catch up and the injured Bernath had to take over. When shooting, Sweden was third with 15 seconds ahead of Yugoslavia (1 minute), Germany (1:15) and Slovakia (2:45).

Medal table

Since these world championships are only of an unofficial nature, the medal ranking is not included in the overall ranking of the medal count for world championships. In the following overview, the military patrol run, which is only unofficial anyway, is not included.

Nations

space	nation
01	Finland	3	3	1	7th
02	Sweden	1	2	2	5
03	German Empire	1	0	1	2
04th	Italy	0	0	1	1

athlete

space	athlete
01	Jussi Kurikkala	2	1	0	3
02	Alfred Dahlqvist	1	1	1	3
03	Lauri Silvennoinen	1	0	1	2
04th	Gustl Berauer	1	0	0	1
	Paavo Vierto	1	0	0	1
	Martti Lauronen	1	0	0	1
	Eino Olkinuora	1	0	0	1
08th	Pauli salons	0	1	0	1
	Leo Laakso	0	1	0	1
	Mauritz Brannström	0	1	0	1
	Carl Pahlin	0	1	0	1
	Donald Johansson	0	1	0	1
	Nils Östensson	0	1	0	1
014th	Josef Gstrein	0	0	1	1
	Sven Selånger	0	0	1	1
	Aristide Compagnoni	0	0	1	1
	Severino Compagnoni	0	0	1	1
	Alberto Jammeron	0	0	1	1
	Giulio Gerardi	0	0	1	1

Individual evidence

1. ^ "As an athlete in the trenches" , Wiener Zeitung February 1, 2013 on wienerzeitung.at
2. ↑ About FIS - FIS Organization, 16th Pau (FRA) 1946 ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2016 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. on fis-ski.com 
3. ↑ «Cross-country skiing on Wednesday!»; “Sport Zürich” No. 15 of February 5, 1941, page 2; Column 4, below
4. ↑ «Heja Sverige!»; “Sport Zürich” No. 16 of February 7, 1941, pages 1 and 2
5. ↑ Sports reports of the "Dolomites". The end of the World Ski Championships in Cortina in: Dolomites of February 10, 1941, p. 6
6. ↑ "Kurikkula brings Suomi the 50 km victory"; “Sport Zürich” No. 17 of February 10, 1941, pages 3 and 4
7. ^ "Finnish victory and Italian triumph in the relay race of the FIS World Championships"; «Sport Zürich» No. 15 of February 5, 1941, pages 1 and 2
8. ^ "Again Suomi on the last day!"; “Sport Zürich” No. 17 of February 10, 1941, pages 4 and 5
9. ^ "Berauer (Germany) Combination World Champion"; «Sport Zürich» No. 16 of February 7, 1941, page 2
10. ↑ Sweden in front of Germany and Italy in the Volks-Zeitung patrol run of February 8, 1941, volume 39, page 7, Austrian National Library, ANNO, historical Austrian newspapers and magazines
11. ^ «On Friday military patrol run!»; “Sport Zürich” No. 16 of February 7, 1941, page 2; Column 3
12. ^ "New Sweden victory in the military patrol"; “Sport Zürich” No. 17 of February 10, 1941, pages 1 and 2

literature

• Hermann Hansen, Knut Sveen: VM på ski '97. Alt om ski-VM 1925-1997. Adresseavisens Forlag, Trondheim 1996, ISBN 82-7164-044-5 .

Web links

• The sporting rivalries of the Axis powers: Cortina d'Ampezzo and Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1941 by Hans Joachim Teichler on storiaeregione.eu (PDF), accessed on May 8, 2017