Gustav Thöni

Gustav Thöni ( born February 28, 1951 in Trafoi - often one reads the Italianate spelling Gustavo Thoeni ) is an Italian former Alpine skier. The South Tyrolean slalom and giant slalom specialist was in the 1970s, the most successful racers ever. He won four times the overall ranking of the world cup and 24 World Cup races, was four -time world champion and won three medals at the Olympic Games ( one gold and two silver ). After retiring from professional racing, he celebrated numerous other successes as a personal trainer Alberto Tomba and as head coach of the Italian national team. His cousin Roland Thöni was also skier.

Sports career

The son of the village school teacher Georg Thöni, who had his own sports career because of the war must cancel grew, along with his 13 months older cousin Roland Thöni in the small mountain village Trafoi at the foot of the Stelvio Pass on. The parents ran a boarding house and operated a ski lift. The father recognized and encouraged the talent of his son, but also took care of a good education: After primary school, Gustav Thöni visited the middle school boarding school in Merano and then trade school.

1968 Thöni was inducted into the Italian national team. With a newly developed Umsteigetechnik, with which he could approach the gates particularly high, he revolutionized the driving style of the time and sat right at the top. In December 1969, he participated in his first World Cup race: the giant slalom in Val d'Isère, he won more than a second ahead of Frenchman Patrick Russell. After he won three more races in January 1970 ( his first slalom victory he celebrated in Bad Hindelang, it was only his third race at all), he was before the World Ski Championships 1970, held near his home in Val Gardena, already as a big favorite. Thöni could not withstand the pressure: in the giant slalom, he retired after the third goal and in the slalom he missed the medals in fourth scarce. At the end of his first season, he was, however, are the winners of the Giant Slalom World Cup, in the World Cup he finished third - only eight points behind winner Karl Schranz.

In the 1970/71 season Thöni leaving the competition far behind. He won four races and achieved numerous podium finishes. In the American Sugarloaf he (but never to a victory in this discipline should hand him ) went for the first time in a downhill podium. He first won the overall World Cup standings, winning the giant slalom World Cup he shared with the same number of points Patrick Russell. At the Olympic Winter Games in 1972 in Sapporo Thöni was his role as favorite: He was Olympic champion in giant slalom and the slalom won the silver medal, beaten only by the surprising Spaniard Francisco Fernández Ochoa. Another gold medal he won in the combination, but was not regarded as an Olympic sport, but as a world championship. In the course of the World Cup 1971/72 season Thöni won though only a single race, but this was enough for the regained the overall World Cup; also the giant slalom World Cup he decided in his favor.

Thöni sat in the 1972/73 season continued his winning streak. With three victories, he secured for the third time in a row the World Cup overall standings, in addition, he was the first winner of the slalom World Cup. In the World Ski Championships 1974 in St. Moritz Thöni was both the giant slalom and the slalom world champion. Particularly impressive was his performance in the slalom as he improved in the second passage from eighth to first place. The World Cup 1973/74 season proved to be as successful with three wins, but in the overall standings Thöni was defeated his fellow countryman Piero Gros. However, he opted for the second consecutive year the slalom World Cup itself. In 1973 and 1974 he was honored by the International Association of Ski Journalists with the Skieur d'Or.

In the season 1974/75 Thöni was again very successful. He won six races, including the first time a combined score. On the Streif in Kitzbühel he reached his second ( and last ) podium in an exit, he was only a hundredth of a second behind the winner Franz Klammer. Before the last race of the season, a parallel slalom in Val Gardena, Gustav Thöni, Ingemar Stenmark, Franz Klammer and were tied at the top of the overall standings. In the final round to Thöni prevailed over Stenmark and thus won for the fourth time overall World Cup.

In the following winter Thöni very focused on the Winter Olympic Games 1976 in Innsbruck. He led after the first run of the giant slalom at the standings, but dropped back to fourth place. In the slalom he won the silver medal behind Piero Gros, in the scoring as World Cup combined score the gold medal. During the 1975/76 season Thöni won two races, but he was increasingly in the shadow of Sweden Ingemar Stenmark and eventually became third in the overall standings.

During the 1976/77 season Thöni kept falling further behind Stenmark and won only a combined score. 1977/78 was his best result a fifth place, the exit at the World Ski Championships in Garmisch -Partenkirchen, he finished in twelfth place. In February 1979, he managed the slalom in Åre for the last time ever, a position on the podium. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid was Thöni eighth in the slalom, his last World Cup race, he drove in Saalbach -Hinterglemm on 15 March 1980 ( 15 in slalom ).

As one of the most successful Italian winter sports at all, was chosen Gustav Thöni by CONI for flag bearer at the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games 1976 in Innsbruck and 1980 in Lake Placid.

Coach and entrepreneur

After his sports career Thöni tried to establish himself as a film actor foot, but the two films " The downhill " and " A hundredth of a second " turned out to be flops. Prior to his retirement he had begun (also his birthplace ) to invest the assets generated by his sporting achievements in the expansion of parental pension to a hotel. The hotel "Bellavista" he heads along with his wife Ingrid and her three daughters Petra, Susanne and Anna.

Some years Thöni was engaged for the Italian Ski Federation as a youth coach. From 1989 to 1996 he was a personal trainer Alberto Tomba and reached with him many successes ( World Cup, 1995, two world titles, an Olympic gold medal ). Subsequently, he was until 1999 the head coach of the Italian national ski team of men.

Achievements

Olympic games

( included at the same time as World Championships )

• Sapporo 1972 1st Giant Slalom, Slalom 2
• Innsbruck 1976: 2nd Slalom, Giant Slalom 4
• Lake Placid 1980: 8 Slalom

World Championships

• Gardena 1970: 4th Slalom
• Sapporo in 1972: 1 combination
• St. Moritz 1974: 1st Giant Slalom, Slalom 1
• Innsbruck 1976: 1 combination
• Garmisch 1978: 12 Departure

World Cup

Gustav Thöni has four times won the overall World Cup (1971, 1972, 1973, 1975), plus five more victories coming in discipline ratings.

Overall, Gustav Thöni has won 24 World Cup races (11 Giant Slalom, Slalom 8, 1 parallel slalom, 4 combinations ). There are also 25 second places and 20 third places. 114 times he classified among the top ten.

Slalom (including parallel slalom *)

Combination

Giant Slalom

Italian Championships

A total of five title wins:

• Combination: 1970
• Slalom: 1971, 1973
• Giant Slalom: 1975, 1977

Awards

Source

• World Sports Archives, Edition 05/ 2001 ( Munzinger archive)