On This Day in Sport & Leisure History – Ski Jumping

7th

 

Gregor Schlierenzauer was born on this day in 1990 in Tirol, Austria and is one of the sport’s most successful athletes of all time, having won the Ski Jumping World Cup overall title, the Four Hills Tournament, and Nordic Tournament twice each; the Ski Flying World Cup overall title three times; as well as four medals at the Winter Olympics, twelve at the Ski Jumping World Championships, and five at the Ski Flying World Championships .During his victorious 2008/09 World Cup season, Schlierenzauer set a number of ski jumping records, including surpassing Janne Ahonen’s record of twelve individual World Cup wins with thirteen; and also tying Ahonen, Matti Hautamäki, and Thomas Morgenstern’s record of six consecutive individual wins in a single season. On 26^th January 2013, Schlierenzauer equalled Matti Nykänen’s long-standing record of 46 individual World Cup wins, and currently has 53 to his name as of March 2018; the most of any male ski jumper.  Over two Olympics (2010 and 2014) he has won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals, he is the nephew of Markus Prock, a six time Olympian and one of the greatest ever luge sliders.

8^th

American Alpine star Rolf Monsen was born in Oslo on this day in 1899. Affiliated to the Lake Placid Sno-Birds and the Sugar Bowl Ski Club he moved to the United States in 1921 and became an American citizen in 1927. He was exposed to skiing almost before he could stand, as were most Norwegian youngsters, and became an outstanding jumper and cross-country skier. He won the Canadian nordic combined in 1922 and 1923 and the Quebec jumping title in 1923 as well as the US Eastern nordic combined. He won the Quebec combined in both 1924 and 1925. In 1927 won the Vermont State Championships in jumping, cross-country and combined. He also won the Lake placid invitational and all competitions in which he was entered during the season. He was awarded the Beck Trophy for the combined. Monsen was a member of three US Olympic Teams in 1928, 1932 and 1936. In 1928 (in Moritz, Switzerland) he came sixth in the special jumping – the best performance by an American. In 1932 (in Lake Placid, New York) he came in ninth in the nordic combined – the best ever by an American. Although an injury prevented his competing in the 1936 Olympic Games (in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany) he was given the honour of carrying the flag in the opening ceremony. He competed across North America between 1922 and 1937 when he retired from competitive sport. In 1938 he acquired a national and international certificate to judge ski jumping competitions in the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1940 Rolf was hired by the United States War Department to help train the 10th Mountain’s ski troops for mountain warfare during World War II. After the war Monsen settled in California where he remained an active skier supporter of the Olympic ideals. Both his ideals and backing of skiing in California helped to foster the sport in the west. For his contributions as an athlete and ski sport builder, Rolf was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of fame in 1964. After World War II he settled in California and continued to ski recreationally throughout his life. He was elected to the US Ski Hall of Fame in 1964. He died at the age of 88 in Bellflower, California on 28^th April 1987.

 

9^th

Peter Žonta was born in 1979 in Slovenia. A member of SD Dolomiti, he has competed at the 1998 and 2002 Winter games, winning bronze in 2002 at Salt Lake City in the team large hill event, as well as winning an individual large hill Wlorld Cup event at Innsbruck in 2004.

Vincent Descombes Sevoie, French Ski jumper was born in 1984 in  Chamonix, Haute-Savoie in France. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he finished ninth in the team large hill, 21st in the individual large hill, and 28th in the individual normal hill events. Sevoie’s best finish at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships was eighth in the team large hill event at Liberec in 2009. His best World Cup finish is fifth place in the individual large hill event at Ruka in November 2016. He is also a French national record holder.

10^th

In the absence of any ski jumpers being born today. American freestyle skier Maddie Bowman was born in 1994.  The second skier to take 4 straight gold at XG Aspen, Maddie has 8 total XG medals in SuperPipe: 4 gold; 2 silver; 2 bronze. This 2014 Olympic halfpipe champion also picked up a Subaru sponsorship post Sochi and gets a new Subaru Outback every year. Maddie hosted an all-women’s photo/jib session called Recess in 2016 and 2017 at her home mountain of Sierra-at-Tahoe. The goal was to help women progress their skiing and have access to photographers and filmers. XG Aspen 2018 will be Bowman’s 10th XG appearance

 

^11th

Franz Aschenwald, was born in 1913 in Tirol, Austria. He competed for Innsbrucker SV and began skiing at the end of the 1920s in his home in the Ziller Valley and turned to ski jumping in the early 1930s. He competed at the World Championships three times, finishing 19th in 1933, 10th in 1935, and 21st in 1937, in addition to his 1936 Olympic appearance. He also competed in Alpine skiing, coming fifth in slalom at Kitzbühel in 1935 and fourth in downhill at Grogglockner in 1936. He began working as a ski coach in 1936. He died in Vienna while serving in World War II at the age of 32 on 31^st January 1945

12^th

Laura Donaldson, British freestyle skiing athlete was born today in 1972.  She took part in the 2002 Winter Games in the Moguls even at Salt Lake City, where she was placed 29^th. She won the Extreme Series ’98 at Berthoud Pass, Colorado. Extreme Skiing is a discipline at the X Games and Laura found herself having to choose – would it be better to move into Extreme Skiing, where she was getting good results or continue with Freestyle Skiing where the competition was far tougher? She chose Freestyle skiing and continued to train and compete in America, since they have a well-established race circuit. The Freestyle race courses were well structured, and basically safer than Extreme races and this was a path that she felt could lead to the Olympics. Freestyle Skiing and Moguls became an Olympic discipline for the first time at Nagano in ’98 and Laura’s results were good and improving, but after sustaining a serious knee injury her training was stalled for over a year. She was fortunate to return to training at a high level, and  qualified for the Games just two weeks before the event in 2002. She competed in the Winter Olympic Games at Salt Lake and was the first Scottish lady to do so. After retiring, she joined a production team as a Production Assistant at Channel 4 to work on ‘World Cup Skiing‘, and she is also a Swiss qualified ski instructor and coach, teaching for ES in Verbier in Switzerland.

13^th

Born on this day in 1980, Austrian ski jumper Wolfgang Loitzl. He won the 2008–09 Four Hills Tournament. In the final competition of the tournament in Bischofshofen, receiving the maximum score (20) for the first jump from all five judges. In ski jumping history, only Anton Innauer (1976), Kazuyoshi Funaki (1998), Sven Hannawald (2003), Hideharu Miyahira (2003), and Peter Prevc (2015) have matched this feat. On 21^st February 2009 he won the individual gold on the normal hill at the World Championships at Liberec ahead of fellow Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer and Switzerland’s Simon Ammann. Further success followed on 28^th  February the same year when he won gold as part of the Austrian quartet in the team large hill event. The following season, he won gold in the large hill team event at the 2010 Winter Olympics. He also won gold in the ski flying team event at the 2010 Ski Flying World Championships.