Walter Steiner

Walter Steiner ( * February 15, 1951 in Wild House ) is a retired Swiss ski jumper. Even today he is known at home by his nickname, " The Bird Man ", although his active time lags decades.

Steiner got 1972 at the inaugural ski flying World Championships in Planica the title. He could repeat this success in 1977. In 1973 he was also runner-up. At the Olympic Winter Games in 1972 in Sapporo Steiner won the silver medal in the large hill.

Overall, a good ten years ( 1968-1978 ) was one of Steiner on the Swiss national team and had its heyday under coach Ewald Roscher. In 1973/74 and 1976/77 Steiner was each second in the Four Hills Tournament. Two days victories he won in the Tournament, 1974 in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, 1977 in Bischofshofen. In 1977 he received the Holmenkollen medal as the first Swiss.

Overall, the Toggenburg won 27 FIS Jumping, including the Tatras Cup in 1975, the tour of Norway in 1976 and the Swiss jumping tournament in 1977 with three bullets. He won in 1974 at the ski flying in Planica week, scoring with 169 meters world record. His Longest flight was in 1973 at the World Championships in Oberstdorf with 179 meters. But he could not stand this, and neither do the 177 meters in Planica a year later. With the 5th place at the ski flying week in Bad Mitterndorf 1978, he said goodbye to the ski scene. Walter Steiner was unlike many lightweight jumpers with partially very low Body Mass Index (BMI ) is a serious athlete. He had therefore cruciate ligament problems and multiple knee surgeries, which decreased significantly to its long jumps.

After finishing his sports career Steiner moved together with his former coach Ewald Roscher the German Ski Federation, where he worked as a grower and service man. After two years as assistant coach of the Swiss national team Walter Steiner went to the USA and worked there in mid -1980s as a full-time coach in Steamboat Springs.

For long jumps in an unpredictable Schanze radius there was already in the 70s in the jumping and flying repeatedly to serious falls. The improved material at Ski and suits the existing hill profiles and table designs have been more critical, because you could not keep under control the widths and had to be shortened and lengthened in the competitions of the start-up time and again. Walter Steiner sat down after his active career very much for improvements in the ski jumps and hill profiles and called by name also, already flatten the ski jump hill until the radius begins to discharge surface. Thus, the flight distances were again controlled by the jury and the jumpers could now fly to the radius without fear.

Since 1990, Walter Steiner lives in the Swedish town of Falun. The director Werner Herzog tried the example of Walter Steiner in the film The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, an approach to the psyche of a ski jumper.