- Franz Heinzer
Franz Heinzer (born
April 11 1962 ) in Rickenbach,Switzerland is a former alpineski racer , who specialized above all indownhill . He was World Cup Downhill Champion three consecutive seasons (1991,1992,1993), second only toFranz Klammer (5). He won a total of 17 World Cup downhill races, third behind Klammer, (25) andPeter Mueller ,(19). Together withToni Sailer ,Jean Claude Killy andKarl Schranz he must be considered one of the six best downhill racers of all time.He won at least once, at each of the world's most famous downhill venues:
Kitzbühel (3x),Wengen ,Val Gardena (2x),Garmisch-Partenkirchen ,Val d'Isere ,Aspen ,Lake Louise andSankt Anton . His victory in the downhill event at the 1991 World Championships came after three fourth places at previous championships (Schladming (1982),Bormio (1985) andCrans-Montana (1987). He didn't compete atVail in 1989. At the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehamer his ski binding broke a few metres after the start. He ended his illustrious career a few weeks afterwards.Now he runs his own sports products company (in Altdorf) and since the winter of 2004, also works as the assistant coach of Swiss National Downhill Team.
World Cup victories
Overall results
Individual victories
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.