Pepi Salvenmoser

Josef "Pepi" Salvenmoser (born December 15, 1926 in Kitzbühel ; † September 21, 2016 there ) was an Austrian ski racer and alpine ski trainer . As a ski racer, he achieved several podium places in international races in the late 1940s and early 1950s before he switched to the Canadian Association as a trainer and celebrated great successes with the Canadian ski ladies.

Career

In addition to alpine skiing, Salvenmoser was initially also an ice hockey player at the Kitzbühel ice hockey club . He also took part in swimming and diving competitions. Ultimately, however, he devoted himself entirely to ski racing. The athlete from the Kitzbühel Ski Club achieved his greatest successes as an active racer at the Hahnenkamm races in his home town of Kitzbühel . In 1950 he finished second behind Fritz Huber in downhill and combined and a year before that he was third in slalomreached. In 1952 he was second in the three-piste race in Arosa .

After his active career, Salvenmoser switched to the Canadian Ski Association as a women's trainer. Initially only employed as a temporary worker for the preparation for the 1954 World Cup in Åre , he was soon appointed head coach of the Canadian women's national team due to his training success. He introduced some innovations in training and focused more on the athletes' mental preparation for competitions. He achieved great international successes over the next few years, especially with the top Canadian runners Lucille Wheeler and Anne Heggtveit . Wheeler won the bronze medal in the downhill at the 1956 Winter Olympics - and thus the first Olympic medal in alpine skiing for Canada - and at the 1958 World Championships two gold medals in the downhill and giant slalom as well as the silver medal in combination. Heggtveit became Olympic champion and world champion in slalom and world champion in combination at the Olympic Winter Games in 1960 . Together, Wheeler and Heggtveit won eight medals at the Olympic Games and World Championships from 1956 to 1960, making Salvenmoser the most successful Canadian head coach to date. In addition to Wheeler and Heggtveit, Nancy Greene , who later became very successful, was one of his protégés.

In 1964, Salvenmoser ended his coaching work in Canada. Later he was a functionary in the Kitzbühel Ski Club for a long time and occasionally also directed ski training there. In recognition of his services, he received honorary citizenship of the Canadian capital Ottawa and was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame in 1990. He was buried in Kitzbühel .

Literature and web links

• A look back: Pepi Salvenmoser. In: City of Kitzbühel. Bulletin of the municipality. Volume 10 / No. 11, November 2006, pp. 8–9 ( online as PDF file, 6.7 MB)
• Pepi Salvenmoser. In: Trend guide Kitzbühel . No. 18, autumn 2009, pp. 65–68 ( online as PDF file, 11.1 MB)
• The honor roll of Canadian skiing 1990 inducties: Pepi Salvenmoser – Kitzbuhel, Austria. In: Newsletter of the Canadian Ski Museum, Volume 6, Number 1, Winter 1991, p. 2 ( online as PDF file, 13.5 MB)
• Entry on Pepi Salvenmoser in the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituaries in the Tiroler Tageszeitung online
2. ↑ Hahnenkamm Race Winner Lists Rank 1 to 3 - 1931 to 2010. ( Memento of the original from November 28, 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. (PDF file, 48 kB) 
3. ↑ Mr. Salvenmoser Josef. In: trauerhilfe.at. September 21, 2016, accessed August 27, 2020 .