Karl Schranz

Early years

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. In addition to the hardship, their hut burned down. At age 12, Schranz became an apprentice ski maker, then worked in a sawmill, and later became a ski tester. Schranz began skiing before age five on salvaged broken skis, left by tourists and reworked by his father.

At age 18, he won the first of three consecutive Arlberg-Kandahar downhill and combined titles at Chamonix in March 1957. Schranz won again the following year, rotated back to his hometown at St. Anton, and also in 1959 at Garmisch, West Germany. He missed the 1958 World Championships in Bad Gastein due to illness.

Olympics

The Olympics were unfortunately Schranz's nemesis. His disqualification from his fourth Olympics in 1972 for acknowledging that he, like all other top racers, was not a pure amateur caused a furor and subsequent reform of the IOC. In his first Olympics at age 21, Schranz was injured in 1960, but started anyway and finished seventh in both the downhill and giant slalom. He won a silver medal in giant slalom in 1964 at Innsbruck, despite being ill with the flu.

In 1968 at Grenoble, France, Schranz competed in all three alpine events, held at Chamrousse. He finished fifth in the downhill and sixth in the giant slalom, both won by rival Jean-Claude Killy of the host country. In his first run in the slalom, Schranz time was only 0.32 behind. His second run was run in a very dense fog, which hampered his visibility, and Schranz was impeded by a race official which affected his race. He 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. A jury upheld the decision and Killy was declared the winner for a third Olympic gold medal in the same games. There was a great deal of controversy over the suspicion that partisan French officials were attempting unfairly to prevent Schranz from winning so that Killy would sweep all three races, duplicating Toni Sailer's 1956 sweep.

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. (From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the world championships for alpine skiing.)

Classified as a professional by the International Olympic Committee, Schranz was banned from the 1972 Winter Olympics and retired from the World Cup circuit in mid-February at age 33. In July 1973, he joined the pro ski racing circuit.

Had the World Cup begun a decade earlier, Schranz's outstanding achievements during his prime would be far better known. He would for instance rank behind only Klammer as the second best downhiller ever and would have been the overall world cup champion three (1966, 1969, 1970) or more times.

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

Season titles

Season standings

Results from the 1968 Winter Olympics and 1970 Word Championships were included the World Cup standings.

Individual races

World Championship results

1958: illness
1972: banned by IOC