Klaus Kröll

Klaus Kroell ( born April 24, 1980 in Oeblarn ) is an Austrian alpine skier. He specializes in the disciplines of downhill and Super -G. Kroell won the previous six World Cup races in the season 2011/2012 the downhill World Cup and scored three top- 10 finishes at World Championships and Olympic Games. He was also twice each Junior World Champion and Austrian Champion.

  • 2.1 The Olympic Games
  • 2.2 World Championships
  • 2.3 Junior World Championships
  • 2.4 World Cup
  • 2.5 European Cup
  • 2.6 Further successes

Biography

Klaus Kroell attended elementary school in his hometown Oeblarn and then the main school in Stein an der Enns. After a one year interlude at the Agricultural College in Groebming he graduated from 1995 to 1999 the Skihandelsschule in Schladming. Kroell came as a 14- year-old in the Styrian student cadres and went after reaching the age limit in the season 1995/ 1996, the first FIS races. The next winter he had an injury, however, pause almost the entire season.

Kroell has been included in the squad of the Austrian Ski Federation ( Austrians ) in 1998 and developed early into a specialist for the speed disciplines super-G and especially downhill. The first major successes came at the Junior World Championships in 1999 and 2000: in 1999 he won the gold medal in Pra Loup in the downhill and 2000 in Mont Sainte -Anne Gold in the Super -G and silver in the downhill. In the same years he was Austrian Junior Champion in the downhill. In the European Cup he showed in those years had also already good performance. He scored several top 10 finishes ( including a second place in the departure of Falcade on January 21, 1999) and came in the seasons 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 respectively in the top ten in the downhill standings. The final breakthrough in the European Cup he achieved in the 2000/2001 season. With two wins in the departures of Altenmarkt and Sestriere and two other podium finishes he achieved equal points with his fellow countryman Norbert Holzknecht second place in the downhill standings. Thus he secured for the next winter a Fixstartplatz in the World Cup as well as the rise in the A-team of the Austrian Ski Federation.

The first successes in the World Cup

His first two World Cup races had already contested in the winter 1999/2000 Kroll. Making its debut in the departure of Chamonix on January 8, 2000, he won the first World Cup as a 30 -point, two months later, he did not come in the Super G in Bormio, however the finish. After starting in winter 2000/2001 only in the European Cup and had won a Fixstartplatz in the World Cup, was his actual entry into the World Cup quite successful in the 2001/2002 season. In the first season departure on 8 December 2001 in Val d'Isere he reached the seventh place and at the end of the month he missed in the downhill on the Pista Stelvio in Bormio only just his first podium. After another top-10 results Kroell was on December 14, 2002 for the first time on the podium of a World Cup race when he second in the downhill in Val d'Isere was behind Eberharter. With further good results he achieved in the 2002/2003 season for the first time into the top ten in the downhill World Cup. For large events but he did not initially used. At the Olympic Winter Games in 2002, he failed in the Austrian Ski Federation 's internal qualification short of Christian Greber and the 2003 World Cup, he was not drawn up by the Austrian team lead after the intended qualification as a training run had to be canceled.

In the World Cup Kroell scored in the 2003/2004 season, from which he almost exclusively focused for several years on the exit, continue to regularly top 10 results. But as he in the season 2004/2005 fell back slightly and a fourth place in Bormio was his only top result that winter, he did not play well in the World Cup 2005. Better was again the 2005/2006 season in which Kroell with second place in the downhill in Garmisch- Partenkirchen on 28 January 2006, his second World Cup podium reached. After a successful Austrian Ski internal qualification for the fourth place to the departure of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin Kroell came alongside the Fixstartern Michael Walchhofer, Hermann Maier and Fritz Strobl now also his first appearance at a major event. In the Olympic run, he remained with rank 22 but his expectations. At the end of the winter Kroell suffered in a fall in Åre a fracture of the tibial plateau and further injury due to which he was sidelined three months. In the season 2006/2007 Kroll drove in three World Cup downhill into the top ten, to participate in the 2007 World Championships but not enough so. On 29 February 2008 he was with a third place in the departure of Kvitfjell for the third time on the podium, which he also came for the first time in five years, among the top ten in the downhill World Cup. He was also 2008 Austrian champion in the downhill.

Following the world's top

After Kroell had already been achieved in the last six years in the World Cup numerous top -10 results and several podium finishes, but it was the final breakthrough has not yet succeeded, he unlocked the absolute world leader in the 2008 /2009 season. Besides the descent, he started now regularly again in the Super- G, after he had participated in only two World Cup Super -G in the last five years. In the super -G he finally succeeded also the first World Cup victory, when he was on the Streif in Kitzbühel 22 hundredths of a second faster than second placed Aksel Lund Svindal on 23 January 2009, although Kroell eight days earlier in a fall in training for the World Cup downhill in Wengen three carpal bones had broken and had to start with a special collar. The next day he was third in the Hahnenkamm downhill after serving as second in the downhill in Bormio was previously stood first four weeks this winter on the podium. With these results he had also clearly qualified in both disciplines to participate in the 2009 World Championships in Val d'Isere, where the medal contenders in ninth place in the downhill and tenth in the super-G came out on top approach but not quite. A month after the World Cup celebrated Kroell in the departure of Kvitfjell his second World Cup victory, which he reached the second place in the downhill World Cup behind Michael Walchshofer.

At the World Cup successes of the previous year Kroell could not connect in the winter of 2009 /2010. A third place in the departure of Kvitfjell was his best result of the season, only two more times he went into the top ten, in the super-G in any race he came into the top 15 in the season 2010/2011 Kroll was but back to the top. He celebrated on January 15, 2011 in the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen his third World Cup victory, achieved in Downhill and Super- G three more podium finishes and was third in the downhill World Cup. For large events it but still not managed to climb on the podium. Was he in 2010 ninth in the downhill at the Winter Olympics, he won at the World Championships 2011 in Garmisch -Partenkirchen eleventh place in this discipline. In the super -G, he was both times not at the start, because did not have enough in the season 2010/2011 its Super G results before the World Cup for a list.

The season 2011/2012 was to Krölls most successful in the World Cup. He won a super-G and two runs and scored three more runs podiums. He won in the downhill for the first time in his career a discipline World Cup, only seven points ahead of Switzerland's Beat Feuz. In the super -G he drove beside his victory three times into the top five, with which he was Fünter Super - G World Cup and next to the exit in this discipline achieved its best ever overall results. Shortly after the end of the season Kroell injured motocross riding on the right foot. After surgery, he was sidelined for several months, until the beginning of October, he was able to start snow training again.

Already at the beginning of the next World Cup winter 2012/2013 he was in the first exit in Lake Louise as third on the podium again. With three other podium finishes in Wengen, Garmisch -Partenkirchen and Kvitfjell he eventually took second place in the discipline standings. The desired medal win at the World Championships in 2013, he just missed out in fourth place of departure. On March 14, 2013 Kroell crashed in the Super G in Lenzerheide ( his last race of the season ) difficult; he withdrew it to a fraction of the left humerus with involvement of the humeral head.

At the beginning of the 2013/2014 season went Kroell in the first departure from Lake Louise to second place. However, he could not confirm this achievement and did not in the course of the winter over a 14 square.

Achievements

Olympic games

  • Turin 2006: 22 Departure
  • Vancouver 2010: 9 Departure
  • Sochi 2014: 22 Departure

World Championships

  • Val d'Isere 2009: 9 exit 10 Super -G
  • Garmisch -Partenkirchen 2011: 11 Departure
  • Schladming 2013: 4th exit

Junior World Championships

  • Pra Loup 1999: 1st exit
  • Quebec 2000: 1 Super -G, 2nd exit

World Cup

  • 2008/2009 season: 2nd downhill World Cup
  • Season 2010/2011: 3 Downhill World Cup
  • Season 2011/2012: 1st World Cup downhill, super- G World Cup 5th, 7th overall World Cup
  • Season 2012/2013: 2 Downhill World Cup,
  • 23 podiums, including 6 victories:

* Same time as Beat Feuz

European Cup

  • 2000/2001 season: 2nd exit summary
  • 5 podiums, including two victories

Other successes

  • Austrian Champion in downhill in 2008 and Super- G 2010
  • Austrian Junior Champion ( Youth II ) in the downhill in 1999 and 2000
  • 2 wins in FIS races
World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships 2012 Alpine Skiing World Cup Winter Olympic Games Mont Sainte-Anne Altenmarkt im Pongau 2000 Alpine Skiing World Cup 2002 Alpine Skiing World Cup Stephan Eberharter 2003 Alpine Skiing World Cup FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2003 2005 Alpine Skiing World Cup FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2005 2006 Alpine Skiing World Cup 2007 Alpine Skiing World Cup FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2007 2009 Alpine Skiing World Cup FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2009 2010 Alpine Skiing World Cup 2011 Alpine Skiing World Cup FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2011 2013 Alpine Skiing World Cup Lake Louise (Alberta) FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2013 2014 Alpine Skiing World Cup Alpine skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics Alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics Alpine skiing at the 2014 Winter Olympics France
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