18 Facts About Karl Schranz

Karl Schranz was born on 18 November 1938 and is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria, one of the best of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Karl 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; Karl Schranz won the title at age 30 in the third World Cup season of 1969, and repeated in 1970.

Karl Schranz was the downhill champion for those two seasons and was the giant slalom season champion in 1969.

Karl Schranz won both the "classic downhills" four times each: the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel, Austria, and the Lauberhorn at Wengen, Switzerland.

Karl Schranz excelled at the legendary Arlberg-Kandahar events, winning nine times, from 1957 to 1970.

Karl Schranz' father was a tunnel worker in St Anton, which led to an early death from tuberculosis; his widow was left to raise five children.

At age 12, Karl Schranz became an apprentice ski maker, then worked in a sawmill, and later became a ski tester.

Karl Schranz began skiing before age five on salvaged broken skis, left by tourists and reworked by his father.

Karl Schranz won again the following year, rotated back to his hometown at St Anton, and in 1959 at Garmisch, West Germany.

Karl Schranz missed the 1958 World Championships in Bad Gastein due to illness.

Karl Schranz won a silver medal in giant slalom in 1964 at Innsbruck, despite being ill with the flu.

In 1968 at Grenoble, France, Karl Schranz competed in all three alpine events, held at Chamrousse.

Karl Schranz finished fifth in the downhill and sixth in the giant slalom, both won by rival Jean-Claude Killy of the host country.

Karl Schranz's second run was run in a very dense fog, which hampered his visibility, and Schranz claimed he was impeded by a race official which affected his race.

Karl Schranz was given another chance to run the second run and took the lead, but was later informed that his first attempt at run two should have been counted as he missed a gate before encountering the race official, and Schranz was disqualified.

Karl Schranz had better success at the world championships of non-Olympic years: gold in the downhill and combined in 1962 and gold in the giant slalom in 1970.

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