Franz Gabl
Franz X. Gabl ( born December 29, 1921 in St. Anton am Arlberg, † 23 January 2014 in Bellingham (Washington ), United States ) was an Austrian alpine skier. He won the silver medal in the downhill at the Winter Olympics in 1948.
Biography
Gabl came, as did his older brother Josef " Pepi " Gabl, early to skiing and achieved at a young age, especially in ski jumping some success. So it was in 1935 Tyrolean youth champion and won the 1936 National Youth Championship. But then he had to give up due to a serious injury jumping and focused now on entirely on the Alpine events. In 1940 his footballing career for the time being interrupted, as he was drafted into military service. Several times wounded, he returned in August 1945 from a short Russian captivity to Austria.
Now the actual ski career the Tyrolean began. In the winter of 1945/46, he had to still be limited to national competitions, as the Austrians runners -shows was a forbidden abroad. The next winter he celebrated his first major success: He won the slalom at the countries meeting in Seefeld, the giant slalom at the traditional race and Glockner 1947 Austrian Egon scoop behind runner-up in the slalom. With good performance in the Austrian Ski internal secretions he finally qualified for the Olympic Winter Games in 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where the alpine competitions included simultaneously as a World Cup. There he won behind the superior winner Henri Oreiller from France the silver medal in the downhill.
In the winter of 1949 Gabl had to pause a long time due to injury, but was able to win several races next winter again. When West Cup in Lech he won in the combination with the ideal score zero in St. Anton, he won the Hannes Schneider Cup. He was considered a big medal hopes at the World Cup 1950 in Aspen. But he could not cope with the unfamiliar terms and did not reach top positions.
After this World Cup Gabl remained in the U.S., there are some celebrated victories and then worked as a ski instructor. Temporarily, he moved to Canada and coached the Canadian Olympic team of ladies from 1952 and four years later, those of the men. Then he drove Skiprodukte and skiwear in the United States and Canada and became a successful businessman. He died in January 2014.
His nephew is the meteorologist Karl Gabl. The Austrian alpine skier Gertrud Gabl was his niece.
Achievements
Olympic Winter Games
- St. Moritz 1948: 2nd exit
World Championships
- St. Moritz 1948: 2nd exit
- Aspen 1950: 9 slalom, downhill 11th, 36th Giant Slalom