Fritz Tschannen

Fritz Tschannen ( born May 13, 1920 in Saint- Imier, † March 23, 2011 in Val- de -Travers ) was a Swiss musician and ski jumpers.

Tschannen 1945 was a member of the Swiss national ski jumping team, won the 1948 title of Swiss Champion in this discipline and adopted in 1948 at the Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz, where he finished ninth and placed just ahead of his countryman Hans Zurbriggen as the best means Europeans ( before him only Finns and Norwegians and the Americans Gordon Wren were classified). In the same year Tschannen improved the Weltbestweite the German Rudi Gehring on the Bloudkova Velikanka in Planica by two meters, when he landed on the 120 -meter mark. This ski flying record held two years until the Austrian Willi Gantschnigg 124 meters jumped on the newly constructed Oberstdorf ski jump. After his playing career, the Swiss ski should take over the training of the U.S. National Team, but in the United States due to the Korean War, he received a work permit.

Instead drew Tschannen to Canada where he worked as a musician, among other things taught the accordion and also the television program La Suisse qui chante ( German: The Singing Switzerland ) moderated. Even after returning to his homeland in 1964, Tschannen -operated continue as a musician; among other things, he founded a music school in Bex and headed the band. He also worked briefly as a sports secretary in Arosa, where he called a ski center to life with the support of Hans Danuser. At the age of just 80 years, he retired in 1999 after Fleurier, where he still occasionally taught music. On 23 March 2011 Tschannen died in Val -de- Travers.