Manfred Schmid

Manfred Schmid ( born June 6, 1944 in Liezen, Styria ) is an Austrian Olympic champion in luge.

Career

The skilled machinist began his international career as a 12 -year-old in 1957, when he, in the presence of successful compatriots reached the fastest time in a toboggan race in rotting man for the first time. At the Junior European Championships 1960, he won with his partner Ernst field Baumer, two years later, he repeated the title together with his partner Manfred Rohrer. Two years later, Schmid started in his first Winter Olympic Games in 1964 in Innsbruck, reaching in single-seaters after four runs to ninth.

In the Luge World Cup 1967 in Hammarstrand Schmid won with his partner Ewald Walch Silbermediaille in the two-seater behind the team from the GDR, Klaus-Michael Bonsack and Thomas Köhler. In the same year he also won the race in the doubles at the Grand Prix of Austria. After he was Austrian in the doubles state champion in the following year in 1968, with Walch also gained victory at the Grand Prix of Austria, he won the gold medal in the single-seater and the silver medal in doubles at the 1968 Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble.

Schmid came as a pure amateur to the games and had to take unpaid leave in order to be able to ever attend. Despite difficult and ever-changing weather conditions and very high air temperatures, the Styrian took on the difficult path of Villard -de- Lans cope very well and was in the training runs always among the best placed.

The day before the competition in the single-seater learned Manfred Schmid from his father's death. Nevertheless, he went the next morning to the start and drove in the first run an outstanding personal best, which was the basis for the later Olympic victory. He won the gold medal ahead of the two East German lugers race Thomas Köhler and Klaus -Michael Bonsack.

Together with his partner Ewald Walch from Tirol he won on the final day of the Olympic Winter Games or the silver medal in the doubles behind Thomas Köhler and Klaus -Michael Bonsack, Schmid and Walch already could hit almost at the World Championships in 1967. After the games, he was awarded the Honorary Ring of the city Liezen for his success.

In the Luge World Cup in 1969 on the Combined ice rink in Koenigssee Schmid won with Walch his first world title in doubles and also won silver in the single-seater. That same year, Schmid also celebrated a first and a second place in the single-seater and two wins in doubles with partner Feistmantl in Lake Placid. In the Luge World Cup 1971 in Olang Schmid finished seventh in single-seaters and won in double again silver. A year later at the European Luge Championships 1972 in Koenigssee, he was fifth in the single-seater, and in fifth place in the doubles with partner Walch.

At the Olympic Winter Games in 1972 in Sapporo Schmid went to seventh place in the single-seater as in the two-seater. In the Luge World Cup in Oberhof 1973 Schmid was seventh in doubles with Reinhold Sulzbacher. Just twelve months later at the Luge World Cup in 1974 in Koenigssee, he reached again finished eighth in single-seaters and ninth in doubles before 1975 in four years won silver at the Luge World Cup, but this time in the single-seater. In doubles, he did not start. Previously, he had also to win the silver medal in the single-seater in the European Luge Championships 1974 .. A year later at the Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck in 1976 he had to settle for fifth.

When new geschaffenenen Luge World Cup 1977/1978 Schmid was at the end of the season after a decent third in the single-seater standings, level on points with the German Gerd Böhmer. Previously, he had a medal just missed at the European Luge Championships in 1978 as a fourth.

In 1996, Schmid was awarded the Golden Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria.

Achievements

Olympic Winter Games

  • Innsbruck 1964: 9th place in the single-seater
  • Grenoble in 1968: Gold in the single-seater and silver in doubles
  • Sapporo 1972: 7th place in the doubles and single seater
  • Innsbruck 1976: 5th place in the doubles and single seater

Luge World Cup

  • Hammarstrand 1967: Silver in the doubles
  • Koenigssee 1969 gold in doubles and silver in the single-seater
  • Olang 1971: 7th place in the single-seater, silver in doubles
  • Oberhof 1973: 7th place in the doubles
  • Koenigssee 1974: 8th place in the doubles and ninth in doubles

European Luge Championships

  • Koenigssee 1972: 5th place in the single-seater and two-seater
  • Imst 1974: Silver in single seaters
  • Hammer beach 1978: 4th place in the single-seater

Awards (excerpt)

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