Pirmin Zurbriggen
| — Alpine skier — | |
|
Zurbriggen in 2014 | |
| Disciplines |
Downhill, Super G, Giant slalom, Slalom, Combined |
|---|---|
| Born |
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 |
Medal record
| |
.svg.png){kind=icon}
.svg.png){kind=icon}
.svg.png){kind=icon}
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
Zurbriggen was born in Saas-Almagell in the canton of Valais, the son of Alois, an innkeeper, and Ida. His father competed as a ski racer in local competitions in the 1940s and 1950s, but quit the sport after his brother was killed in a training accident.[1] 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.)[2](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.[3]
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, and a distant cousin of Silvan Zurbriggen.[4]
Zurbriggen now runs the "Wellness Hotel Pirmin Zurbriggen" with his parents in Saas-Almagell and another, "Apparthotel Zurbriggen," in Zermatt.[5] In addition, after his World Cup career had ended he partnered with Authier Ski company on a line of signature skis.[6]
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 (w/ GS) | 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
Giant slalom
Slalom
|
Super-G
Combined
|
Footnotes
- ↑ Johnson, William Oscar (27 January 1988). "The Swiss Golden Boy". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- ↑ victories of Pirmin Zurbriggen on fis-ski.com, sorted by date, retrieved 2011-12-30
- ↑ Most Valuable Racers – Top 50, retrieved 2010-02-22
- ↑ Lang, Patrick (18 December 2010). "Silvan Zurbriggen on Pirmin's footsteps". FIS-Ski.com. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ↑ Zurbriggen Homepage, retrieved 2007-11-22
- ↑ California Ski Company (2003), The Authier Story, retrieved 2007-11-19
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pirmin Zurbriggen. |
- Pirmin Zurbriggen at the International Ski Federation
- FIS-ski.com – World Cup season standings – Pirmin Zurbriggen
- Ski-db.com – results – Pirmin Zurbriggen
- Sports Reference.com – Olympic results – Pirmin Zurbriggen
- Official website – (German)
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
Preceded by Étienne Dagon |
Swiss Sportsman of the Year 1985 |
Succeeded by Werner Günthör |
|