Toni Sailer
| — Alpine skier — | |
Sailer in 1956
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| Disciplines |
Downhill, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Combined |
|---|---|
| Club | Kitzbühel Ski Club |
| Born |
17 November 1935 Kitzbühel, Tyrol, Austria |
| Died | 24 August 2009 (aged 73) Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria |
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) |
| Retired | 1959 (age 23) |
| Olympics | |
| Teams | 1 – (1956) |
| Medals | 3 (3 gold) |
| World Championships | |
| Teams | 3 – (1954, 1956, 1958) |
| Medals | 8 (7 gold) |
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Medal record
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Anton Engelbert "Toni" Sailer (17 November 1935 – 24 August 2009) was an Austrian alpine ski racer, considered among the best in the sport. At age 20, he won all three gold medals in alpine skiing at the 1956 Winter Olympics. He nearly duplicated the feat at the 1958 World Championships with two golds and a silver. He also won world titles both years in the combined, then a "paper" race, but awarded with medals by the International Ski Federation (FIS).
Born and raised in Kitzbühel in Tyrol, Sailer was nicknamed "Blitz from Kitz" (Blitz = German word for "bolt of lightning" or "flash"). A phenomenon as a teenager, he won the downhill and combined at the Grand Prix at Megève in 1952 at age 16. A broken leg caused him to miss the 1953 season and kept him from performing well at the World Championships in 1954. He returned to championship form in 1955 at age 19 and the following year became the first to win all three alpine skiing events at the Olympics, taking gold in the downhill, slalom, and giant slalom by 3.5, 4.2 and 6.2 seconds, respectively. He was the fifth athlete to win three gold medals in the same Olympic games, and became the most successful athlete at the 1956 Winter Olympics. The Super-G event did not exist until the 1980s, added to the Olympics in 1988. Through 2014, Sailer remains the youngest male gold medalist in Olympic alpine skiing.
From 1948 through 1980, Olympic alpine ski events doubled as the FIS World Championships, therefore the Olympic champion in any event was also the world champion. The combined event was dropped after 1948 to make way for the giant slalom in 1950. No Olympic medals were awarded for the combined event from 1952 through 1984, but it was an FIS world championship from 1954 through 1980. During this era, it was conducted as a "paper" race, using the results of the three events. A stand-alone combined event returned to the world championships in 1982 and to the Olympics in 1988, with one run of downhill and two runs of slalom.
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