Wolfgang Loitzl (born January 13, 1980 in Bad Ischl ) is a former Austrian ski jumper and former regular soldier in the Austrian Armed Forces . He won a total of nine gold medals (seven at the ski jumping world championships, one each at the Olympics and one at the ski flying world championships), eight of them in team jumping. This makes him one of the most successful medalists in Austria. His greatest success as an individual jumper was winning the Four Hills Tournament 2008/09 .
Wolfgang Loitzl took part in a ski jumping competition in the FIS World Cup for the first time on January 6, 1997 in Bischofshofen . Although he was not supposed to win an individual competition for almost twelve years, he quickly established himself as a reliable jumper with numerous podium and top 10 results and thus became an essential pillar of the Austrian national team. He won gold with the team on the normal hill and bronze with the team on the large hill at the 2001 World Cup, bronze with the team at the 2004 World Ski Flying Championships and gold with the team on the normal hill and the large hill at the 2005 World Cup . At the 2007 World Championships in Sapporo Austria was able to defend the title and Loitzl again won gold with the team from the large hill.
His first win in an individual competition was in the 2008/09 season . After four second places in November and December 2008, he achieved his first World Cup victory on January 1, 2009 at the New Year's event of the Four Hills Tournament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , where he received the top mark of 20 four times for his second jump. On January 4th, 2009 he also won the ski jumping tour at Bergisel in Innsbruck . At the final jump of the tour, on January 6th, 2009 in Bischofshofen, his 142.5-meter jump in the first round was rated as a perfect jump ( five times a mark of 20 ) - only four jumpers had previously succeeded. In the second run, he narrowly missed this mark and received four times the rating of 20 and one rating of 19.5 for his 141.5-meter jump. With this he set the record of Sven Hannawald from 2003, who had also received nine times 20 in a jumping competition. With the victory in Bischofshofen, Loitzl also secured the overall ranking of the Four Hills Tournament 2008/09 . At the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2009 he was also able to become world champion in singles on the normal hill. He also won gold with the team on the large hill. In November he was named Austrian Sportsman of the Year 2009.
However, there was no question of a breakthrough as a victorious jumper, since apart from another World Cup victory in Zakopane (also in January 2009), he did not achieve any further victory. Loitzl's winning streak was impressive, but short. In his career spanning more than ten years, all victories fell within a period of 51 days. After his last victory, the individual world championship title on the normal hill in 2009, he never came anywhere near his impressive form from January / February 2009.
In August 2011, Wolfgang Loitzl ended his active service in the Austrian Armed Forces , from which he has been supported and promoted since 2001. On January 10, 2015, he announced that he would end his career with immediate effect. After his active ski jumping career, Loitzl accompanied the Austrian Continental Cup team for a month on a trial basis, but decided against training as a coach. Instead, he took over his parents' agriculture and primarily does forest work. Together with his wife Marika, he also rents a holiday home in Bad Mitterndorf .
Austria
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Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Zakopane
Sapporo
Pragelato
Lahti
Vikersund
