Walter Kroneisl

Walter Kroneisl (born December 4, 1961 in Linz ) is a former Austrian ski racer . He won eight world championships, six European championships and five overall world cup victories.

Life

Kroneisl grew up in Saalbach-Hinterglemm , where his mother ran the family pension, while his father built up a steel trade in Linz. In 1967 Kroneisl became interested in ski bobsleigh with their first own piece of sports equipment. At the age of 16 he was accepted into the Austrian national team and at the age of 18 won his first World Championship medal in slalom in third place at the World Championship in Lenzerheide . Even before that, Kroneisl attracted attention when he was the first to jump 45 meters over the Seefeld Olympic hill in 1978 at the age of 17 with the skibob.

At the age of 16, Walter Kroneisl started in the overall World Cup for the first time and won the overall World Cup five times in a row between 1981 and 1985. Kroneisl was successful eight times in world championships, the first time in slalom at the 1983 World Cup in Innerkrems . Further titles followed at the 1987 World Cup in Grächen in downhill, 1988 World Cup in Dorfgastein in downhill and combined, 1989 World Cup in Oberammergau in downhill, combined and giant slalom and at the 1990 World Cup in Seefeld for combined.

The three-time defense of the Downhill World Championship title from 1987 to 1989 brought Kroneisl an entry in the Guinness Book of Records .

At the 1995 World Team Masters in New York , he jumped over a ski jump in front of the skyline of the World Trade Center . This event was a marketing campaign for the ski flying world championship on Kulm in 1996.

In 2000 Walter Kroneisl ended his sporting career.