Wilhelm Walch

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Willi Walch Alpine skiing
nation AustriaAustria Austria German Empire
German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) 
birthday January 4, 1912
place of birth Parlors
date of death June 22, 1941
Career
discipline Slalom , downhill , combination
society Ski Club Arlberg
End of career 1941
Medal table
World championships 0 × gold 2 × silver 1 × bronze
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
silver Chamonix 1937 slalom
silver Zakopane 1939 combination
bronze Zakopane 1939 slalom
 

Wilhelm "Willi" Walch (born January 4, 1912 in Stuben , Vorarlberg , † June 22, 1941 ) was an Austrian and German ski racer . He won numerous international races in the 1930s and early 1940s. In 1937 he became vice world champion in slalom and two years later vice world champion in combination .

Career

Willi Walch, whose older brother Emil was also a ski racer, competed in his first races at the age of 16. In 1932 he won the downhill and combined races at the Madloch races in Lech, and came second in the slalom. In the same year he finished fourth in the slalom and fifth in the combination at the Arlberg-Kandahar races in St. Anton . In 1935 he was fourth in the Arlberg-Kandahar run in Mürren .

In the winter of 1936 Walch won the slalom and the combination of Seefeld and the descent from Garmisch-Partenkirchen . He achieved further podium places in the runs from Wengen and Kitzbühel , among others . At the Winter Olympics in 1936 Walch could not participate in the taking place shortly after World Cup in Innsbruck , he finished fifth in slalom and seventh respectively in the downhill and combined.

In the winter of 1937 Walch won the slalom and combination in Wengen and Kitzbühel, the slalom in Garmisch and the downhill run of the Arlberg-Kandahar races in Mürren. At the 1937 World Championships in Chamonix , Vorarlberg won the silver medal in slalom behind Frenchman Émile Allais . However, he only finished the downhill in a disappointing 16th place and thus missed the chance for another medal in the combination. In the next season, Walch was able to win four combinations in Kitzbühel, Wengen, Megève and on the Feldberg . In addition, he won the combination of the Austrian championships in Murau . However , he could not take part in the 1938 World Cup because he was injured shortly before.

After the annexation of Austria , Walch started for the German Reich in 1939 . At the German Championships, which took place in Kitzbühel in 1939, he won the downhill and the combined. He also won the runs in Garmisch and Luchon and the combination in Wengen. At the World Cup in 1939 , Walch first took fourth place in the downhill. Two days later he won the bronze medal in the slalom and thus also won silver in the combination.

In 1940 he celebrated his last victory in slalom on the Feldberg, at the winter sports week in Garmisch he was third in downhill and slalom second in the combination. In the next winter he was unable to take part in races for a long time because of a broken leg , and it wasn't until the end of the season that he achieved third place in the downhill from St. Anton. In the same year Walch was drafted into the Wehrmacht . After completing his basic training, he came to the Eastern Front in the summer of 1941 and fell on the first day of the attack on the Soviet Union as a member of the 98 Mountain Infantry Regiment near Oleszyce .

Sporting successes

World championships

National championships

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Start of the Alpine World Championship in Engelberg. In:  Sportblatt am Mittag / Sport-Tagblatt. Sports edition of the Neue Wiener Tagblatt , March 5, 1938, p. 7 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wst
  2. ^ Hermann Frank Meyer : Bloody edelweiss. The 1st Mountain Division in World War II , Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 54

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Walch, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walch, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuben (municipality of Klösterle)
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1941