Karl Schranz

Karl Schranz

— Alpine ski racer —
Disciplines	Downhill, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Combined
Born	(1938-11-18) November 18, 1938 St. Anton, Tyrol, Austria
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
World Cup debut	January 1967 (age 28) inaugural season
Retired	March 1972 (age 33)
Olympics
Teams	3 - (1960, 1964, 1968)
Medals	1 (0 gold)
World Championships
Teams	6 - (1960–70) includes three Olympics
Medals	6 (3 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	6 - (1967–72)
Wins	12 - (8 DH, 4 GS)
Podiums	23 - (12 DH, 9 GS, 2 SL)
Overall titles	2 - (1969, 1970)
Discipline titles	3 - (2 DH, 1 GS)
Medal record Men's Alpine skiing Competitor for  Austria Olympic Games Silver 1964 Innsbruck Giant Slalom World Championships Gold 1962 Chamonix Downhill Gold 1962 Chamonix Combined Gold 1970 Val Gardena Giant Slalom Silver 1962 Chamonix Giant Slalom Bronze 1966 Portillo Giant Slalom

Schranz winning at Wengen in 1966

Karl Schranz (born November 18, 1938) in St. Anton, Tyrol, Austria) is a former champion alpine ski racer, one of the best in the 1960s.

During his lengthy career (1958–72), Schranz won twenty major downhills, many major giant slalom races and several major slaloms. Late in his career he was the successor to Jean-Claude Killy as the World Cup overall champion; Schranz won the title at age 30 in the third World Cup season of 1969, and repeated in 1970. He was also the downhill champion for those two seasons and was the giant slalom season champion in 1969. Schranz won the classic Lauberhorn downhill at Wengen, Switzerland, four times (1959, 1963, 1966, and 1969) and the classic Hahnenkamm downhill at Kitzbühel, Austria, also four times (1966, 1969 & 2 X 1972). He also excelled in the legendary Arlberg-Kandahar events that he won nine times from 1957 (Chamonix) to 1970 (Garmisch-Partenkirchen).

Olympics

The Olympics were unfortunately his nemesis. His disqualification from his fourth Olympics in 1972 for acknowledging that he was not a pure amateur (like all other top racers) caused a furor and the reform of the IOC. In his first Olympics at age 21, Schranz was injured in 1960, but started anyway and finished seventh in both the downhill and giant slalom. He won a silver medal in giant slalom in 1964 at Innsbruck, despite being ill with the flu. He won no medals in 1968 at Grenoble, where his first slalom run (in the thick fog) was the fastest and his second was interfered with, by a race official stepping on the course. Forced to repeat his second run, he finished first overall, only to be disqualified by a 3-2 jury decision, because a second race official later claimed he had missed a gate prior to his being interfered with by the other race official. As Killy had already won gold in the downhill and giant slalom, there was a great deal of controversy over the suspicion that partisan French officials were attempting unfairly to prevent Schranz from winning so that Killy would sweep all three races, duplicating Toni Sailer's 1956 sweep. Schranz had better success at the world championships (then held every four years, like the Olympics): gold in the downhill and combined in 1962 and gold in the giant slalom in 1970.

Had the World Cup begun a decade earlier, Schranz's outstanding achievements during his prime would be far better known. He would for instance rank behind only Klammer as the second best downhiller ever and would have been the overall world cup champion three (1966,69,70) or more times.

Schranz later became a hotel owner in his hometown of St. Anton and played a key role in organizing the 2001 World Championships.^[1]

World Cup results

Season standings

Season titles

• 5 titles - (2 overall, 2 DH, 1 GS)

Individual races

• 12 wins - (8 DH, 4 GS)
• 23 podiums - (12 DH, 9 GS, 2 SL)

Season	Date	Location	Race
1969	December 12, 1968	Val-d'Isère, France	Giant Slalom
	January 11, 1969	Wengen, Switzerland	Downhill
	January 18, 1969	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill
	February 1, 1969	St. Anton, Austria	Downhill
	March 15, 1969	Mont St. Anne, Canada	Giant Slalom
1970	January 5, 1970	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant Slalom
	January 23, 1970	Megève, France	Downhill
	February 1, 1970	Garmisch, West Germany	Downhill
	February 10, 1970	Val Gardena, Italy	Giant Slalom
1972	December 12, 1971	Val-d'Isère, France	Downhill
	January 14, 1972	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill
	January 15, 1972		Downhill

Notes

References

• Schranz, Karl (2002). Mein "Olympiasieg". Aufgezeichnet von Stefan König und Gerhard Zimmer. Munich: Herbig Verlag. ISBN 3-7766-2308-X. 

External links

• Karl Schranz at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-ski.com - World Cup season standings - Karl Schranz - 1967-72
• Ski-db.com - results - Karl Schranz
• Sports-Reference.com – Olympic results – Karl Schranz
• Karl Schranz.com - (German) - web site
• Karl Schranz in the German National Library catalogue

Awards
Preceded by Toni Sailer	Austrian Sportsman of the Year 1959	Succeeded by Ernst Hinterseer
Preceded by Heinrich Thun	Austrian Sportsman of the Year 1962	Succeeded by Heinrich Thun
Preceded by Liese Prokop	Austrian Sportspersonality of the year 1970	Succeeded by Ilona Gusenbauer