Rudolf Cranz

Heinz- Rudolf " Rudi " Cranz ( born September 2, 1918 in Uccle, Belgium, † 22 June 1941 in Różaniec in Przemysl, Poland ) was a German alpine skier. He belonged in the 1930s to the best drivers in Germany. Between 1937 and 1941 he won the slalom and in combination with four German league titles and one Austrian Championship title.

Cranz was the younger brother of Christl Cranz Skiolympiasiegerin. At her side, he penetrated the mid-1930s prior to the national peak in skiing. The first successes he achieved in 1936, when he was first German champion in slalom, and at the Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch -Partenkirchen, where for the first time alpine competitions were on the program, where he was sixth in the combination.

In the following Ski Championships Cranz was able to assert itself in the world rankings. 1937 in Chamonix, he was fourth in the slalom and fifth in the combination. Two years later at the World Cup in Zakopane he finished third in the slalom and combination respectively the fourth.

Cranz served during the Second World War as mountain troops in the Wehrmacht and fell at the age of 22 years on the day of the attack on the Soviet Union in Poland. The news of his death caused his sister to finish her own athletic career.

Statistics

Olympic Winter Games

  • Garmisch -Partenkirchen 1936: 6 combination

German Championships

  • Alpine Combined: 1937 and 1941
  • Slalom: 1939 and 1941

Austrian Championships

  • Combination 1937
June 22 Slalom skiing Alpine skiing combined FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1937 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1939 Eastern Front (World War II) Alpine skiing at the 1936 Winter Olympics
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