Pirmin Zurbriggen

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Pirmin Zurbriggen
 Alpine ski racer 
Disciplines Downhill, Super G,
Giant slalom, Slalom,
Combined
Born (1963-02-04) 4 February 1963
Saas Almagell, Switzerland
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
World Cup debut 4 January 1981 – (age 17)
Retired 17 March 1990 – (age 27)
Website zurbriggen.ch
Olympics
Teams 2 – (1984,'88)
Medals 2 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams 4 – (1982–89)
Medals 9 (4 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 10 – (1981–90)
Wins 40
Podiums 83
Overall titles 4 – (1984,'87,'88,'90)
Discipline titles 9

Pirmin Zurbriggen (born 4 February 1963) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the most successful ski racers ever, he won the overall World Cup title four times, an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Downhill, and 9 World Championships medals (4 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze).

Biography

Born in Saas-Almagell in the canton of Valais, Zurbriggen made his World Cup debut in January 1981, a month before his 18th birthday. With his victory in the downhill at Kitzbühel in January 1985 at age 21, he became the first to win World Cup races in all five disciplines. (The fifth discipline, Super G, was added in December 1982.)[1](Marc Girardelli, the second to enter this exclusive circle, won his first downhill race four years later at the same place).

Zurbriggen retired from international competition after having won the 1990 World Cup overall title – his fourth, which was then the most overall titles won by a single racer, reached only once before by Gustav Thöni in 1975. Again it was Marc Girardelli who followed him in 1991 with a fourth overall title, and Girardelli added another in 1993 to become the only male racer with five overall titles in World Cup history.

Zurbriggen grew up in the remote village of Saas-Almagell, near Saas-Fee. With a total of 40 World Cup victories over nine years and five gold medals, he belongs to the "All-Time Greats" of alpine skiing, ranking fifth in all time wins and having 169 Top Ten finishes.[2]

Zurbriggen left the World Cup tour as a hero to start a family; he was married the previous summer (30 June 1989) to Monika Julen, with whom he has five children. He is the older brother of Heidi Zurbriggen, a winner of three World Cup downhill races.

Zurbriggen now runs the "Wellness Hotel Pirmin Zurbriggen" with his parents in Saas-Almagell and another, "Apparthotel Zurbriggen," in Zermatt.[3] In addition, after his World Cup career had ended he partnered with Authier Ski company on a line of signature skis.[4]

World Cup results

Season standings

Season Age Overall Slalom Giant
Slalom
Super G Downhill Combined
1981 18 31 17 not
run
18
1982 19 11 33 6 7
1983 20 6 21 4 not
awarded
26 3
1984 21 1 24 1 10 2
1985 22 2 14 2 5 9
1986 23 2 6 10 2 11 1
1987 24 1 21 1 1 1 1
1988 25 1 9 4 1 1 4
1989 26 2 15 1 1 4 3
1990 27 1 11 6 1 3 1

Season titles

  • 13 titles – (4 overall, 2 DH, 4 SG, 3 GS) plus unofficial 3 K
Season Discipline
1984 Overall
Giant Slalom
1987 Overall
Downhill
Super G
Giant Slalom
1988 Overall
Downhill
Super G
1989 Super G
Giant Slalom
1990 Overall
Super G

Race victories

Downhill

Date Location
11-Jan- 1985 Austria Kitzbühel
12-Jan- 1985 Austria Kitzbühel
16-Aug- 1986 Argentina Las Leñas
05-Dec- 1986 France Val d'Isère
10-Jan- 1987 West Germany Garmisch
25-Jan- 1987 Austria Kitzbühel
07-Mar- 1987 United States Aspen, CO
09-Jan- 1988 France Val d'Isère
29-Jan- 1988 Austria Schladming
06-Dec- 1989 Italy Val Gardena

Giant slalom

Date Location
24-Mar- 1982 Italy San Sicario
11-Jan- 1983 Switzerland Adelboden
05-Mar- 1984 United States Aspen, CO
13-Jan- 1987 Switzerland Adelboden
20-Jan- 1987 Switzerland Adelboden
15-Feb- 1987 West Germany Todtnau
29-Nov- 1988 France Val Thorens

Slalom

Date Location
10-Dec- 1984 Italy Sestriere
23-Feb- 1986 Sweden Åre

Super-G

Date Location
19-Dec- 1983 Italy Val Gardena
20-Mar- 1984 Norway Oppdal
07-Dec- 1984 France Puy-Saint-Vincent
17-Mar- 1985 Canada Panorama, BC
28-Feb- 1986 Norway Hemsedal
08-Mar- 1987 United States Aspen, CO
27-Nov- 1988 Austria Schladming
12-Dec- 1989 Italy Sestriere
06-Feb- 1990 Italy Courmayeur
10-Mar- 1990 Norway Hemsedal

Combined

Date Location
24-Jan- 1982 Switzerland Wengen
22-Dec- 1982 Italy Campiglio
29-Jan- 1984 West Germany Garmisch
11-Jan- 1985 Austria Kitzbühel
19-Jan- 1986 Austria Kitzbühel
23-Feb- 1986 Sweden Åre
18-Jan- 1987 Switzerland Wengen
25-Jan- 1987 Austria Kitzbühel
22-Dec- 1988 Austria St. Anton
12-Jan- 1990 Austria Schladming
21-Jan- 1990 Austria Kitzbühel

Footnotes

  1. victories of Pirmin Zurbriggen on fis-ski.com, sorted by date, retrieved 2011-12-30 
  2. Most Valuable Racers – Top 50, retrieved 2010-02-22 
  3. Zurbriggen Homepage, retrieved 2007-11-22 
  4. California Ski Company (2003), The Authier Story, retrieved 2007-11-19 

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Switzerland Étienne Dagon
Swiss Sportsman of the Year
1985
Succeeded by
Switzerland Werner Günthör


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