Matthias Noichl
Matthew " Iliad " Noichl ( born October 17, 1920 in Jochberg, † December 19 2002 in St. Johann in Tirol ) was an Austrian cross country skier, mountaineer and mountain guide. He participated in two Winter Olympics and was six times Austrian Champion. As a climber Noichl made several first ascents in the Alps. Among other things, he was Chairman of the Association of Austrian mountain guide as well as the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations.
Biography
Noichl grew up as the oldest of four children on a mountain farm in Jochberg in Tyrol, where he attended elementary school. During his military service in World War II, he was stationed at the Arctic front in the north of Norway. He came there for the first time with the cross-country skiing in contact sports and took the 6th Mountain Division participated in his first competition. Wounded several times and in 1944 he returned back to Austria, where he still practiced this sport. Noichl found after the war quickly inclusion in the Austrian national team and celebrated mainly at national level some success. In March 1946, he scored the Austrian countries meeting in Seefeld in Tirol second place behind Oskar Schulz in the 18 -km cross-country skiing and first place in the 4 x 10 km relay race with the Tyrolean season, the next Noichl and Schulz nor Hans Jamnig and Alois Under Rainer belonged. In the winter of 1947 he reached including two fifth places in 18 - km races in Kitzbühel, Chamonix. 1948 Noichl was nominated for the Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz, where he finished in 45th place in the 18 -km cross-country runners under 83 evaluated. In the following years he won a total of six Austrian championship titles, including five with the Tyrolean season in the years 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953 and 1954 and a single title in the 16 -km cross-country 1950. To World Cup 1950 in the United States he was from cost reasons, but not posted. In 1952, Noichl a second time at the Winter Olympics used. In Oslo, he reached the 28th place on the 18- km distance. From the mid- 1950s he retired from competitive skating growing back.
1947 Noichl had taken the Tyrolean mountains and Skiführerprüfung, a year later, the state's ski instructor exam. He took over in the fall of 1948 the management of the St. Johann ski school, he held a total of 38 years, and opened one of the first ski rentals in Austria. Noichl was for several years chairman of the Ski Club of St. Johann and from 1950 for over 16 years chairman of the Section Wilder Kaiser St Johann the Austrian Alpine Association. Likewise, he headed for 25 years, the local office of St. John of the Austrian Mountain Rescue Service. In 1952 he married his wife, Gisela, with whom he had three daughters. As a climber Noichl was known by numerous first ascents in the Kaiser mountains and the Dolomites. In 1958 he succeeded after a rockfall, to save himself despite severe injuries even from the Eiger North Face. The experienced mountain guide for 15 years headed the Austrian Federation of Mountain Guides and for several years the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations. He led twelve years he initiated alpine courses for state ski instructor training, he also was in Iran instrumental in building a mountain rescue and guides being. Noichl was awarded the Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria and the Order of Merit of the State of Tyrol.