Sepp Weiler

Sepp Weiler
Sepp Weiler 1953
Full name	Josef Weiler
nation	BR Germany
birthday	January 22, 1921
place of birth	Oberstdorf ,  German Empire
job	Ski jumper
date of death	May 24, 1997
Place of death	Kempten (Allgäu) ,  Germany
Career
society	SC Oberstdorf
National squad	since 1937
End of career	1957

Sepp Weiler (born January 22, 1921 in Oberstdorf ; † May 24, 1997 in Kempten (Allgäu) ) was a German ski jumper .

Career

Weiler was the third youngest of seven siblings; he had one brother and five sisters. He started ski jumping in early childhood and reached an impressive 24 m on a small hill at the age of six. He quickly improved through subsequent intensive training and, at the age of eleven, left all older participants behind him at his first start on Oberstdorf's Schattenbergschanze at 58 meters. At the age of thirteen his best distance was already 75 m, at the age of 16 he was appointed to the German national team and took part in the Holmenkollen Games. The Oberstdorfer failed to achieve any great success, which could also be attributed to the circumstances of the time: Due to the war, the Winter Olympics in 1940 and 1944 were canceled; In 1948 in St. Moritz , the German athletes were not allowed to take part in the competitions. But in 1941 the World Ski Championships took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo , in which Sepp Weiler achieved the greatest widths with 67 m and 76.5 m. The three judges rated his demeanor so badly that he ended up only fourth; the winner was Paavo Vierto . The problem led to the fact that this World Championship was canceled after the end of the war and the FIS immediately appointed five judges, of which the best and worst rating was deleted.

Sepp Weiler served in the Second World War as a Wehrmacht soldier on the Eastern Front, where he lost sight of his left eye due to a shrapnel. However, he did not give up ski jumping.

It wasn't until 1952 that Weiler got his first start at the Olympics at the age of 31: In Oslo he was initially considered a contender for victory, but ended up only in eighth position. After questioning, he stated that he had used the wrong wax. Four years later, the German canceled his participation in the games in Cortina d'Ampezzo after his mother's death.

Apart from Weiler's unsuccessful event at major events, the Oberstdorfer was considered one of the world's best ski jumpers of the 1940s and 1950s. In his best season (1948/49) he won 35 of the 36 competitions in which he took part.

The use of the only existing ski jumping hill in Europe in Planica was denied to German jumpers due to the entry ban from Yugoslavia's Tito. That's why Weiler, together with his Oberstdorf team-mates Heini Klopfer and Toni Brutscher, made sure that the first ski flying hill could be built in Germany in 1949/1950: They sold colored scarves with their autographs , which raised the first 40,000  DM . Heini Klopfer was also an architect, made the construction plans and calculated the required construction sum of around 80,000 DM. The Oberstdorf ski club, the Oberstdorf community and the Bavarian state sports association contributed the missing money. This ski jump was inaugurated with the first ski flying week in Oberstdorf in February 1950. Sepp Weiler jumped here to a new world record distance of 127 m, on the third day of the event he even managed 133 m and was ultimately the overall winner. The hill, the results and the reporting ensured that ski jumping became popular in Germany. The jumping facility was later named Heini-Klopfer-Schanze , has always been modernized and is still in use.

At the first Four Hills Tournament in 1953, Weiler took fifth place overall. In 1957 he ended his 20-year career. Federal President Heuss awarded him the Silver Laurel Leaf together with Toni Brutscher .

Weiler married in 1946; the marriage lasted until his wife's death in 1980, and they had three children. Frank Löffler , team junior world champion from 1998 and German champion 2002, is a grandson of Weiler. Until his death from cancer in May 1997, the trained plumber ran the restaurant at the Heini-Klopfer ski flying hill , which his son then took over.

Successes / hill records

place	country	Expanse	set up on	Record up
Bischofshofen	Austria	102.0 m ( HS : 140 m)	February 27, 1949	December 26, 1950
Oberstdorf	Germany	110.0 m ( HS : 225 m)	February 2, 1950	February 2, 1950
Oberstdorf	Germany	115.0 m ( HS : 225 m)	February 2, 1950	February 28, 1950
Oberstdorf	Germany	127.0 m ( HS : 225 m)	March 2, 1950	March 3, 1950

Web links

• biography
• Sepp Weiler in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} biography ( memento of the original from April 22, 2009 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. by Sepp Weiler, written by his son Bernd: Sepp Weiler ... viewed up close. 
2. ↑ Sepp Weiler in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)