Egon Zimmermann

Egon Zimmermann

— Alpine skier —
Disciplines	Downhill, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Combined
Club	SK Arlberg
Born	(1933-02-08) 8 February 1933 Lech, Vorarlberg, Austria
Height
World Cup debut	January 1967 (age 33) inaugural season
Retired	March 1968 (age 35)
Olympics
Teams	2 – (1964, 1968)
Medals	1 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams	4 – (1962, '64, '66, '68)     (includes two Olympics)
Medals	3 (2 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	2 – (1967, 1968)
Podiums	0
Overall titles	0 – (17th in 1967)
Discipline titles	0 – (9th in DH, 1967)
Medal record Men's Alpine skiing Representing Austria Olympic Games 1964 Innsbruck Downhill World Championships 1962 Chamonix Giant Slalom 1962 Chamonix Downhill

Egon Zimmermann (born 8 February 1939), often referred to as Egon Zimmermann II, is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Austria. Zimmermann won the Olympic downhill at Patscherkofel in 1964 and won several medals on the professional tour in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

He is often confused with Egon N. Zimmermann (19 February 1933 – 27 February 2016) who competed for Austria in the 1958 World Championships and in the 1960 Winter Olympics and was married to Penny Pitou, an Olympic medalist in 1960 with the U.S. Ski Team.

Early life

Zimmermann was raised on a farm near Lech, Vorarlberg, with two brothers. Lech blossomed into a ski resort while he was growing up, and his family converted their farm house into a pensione. His childhood coincided with the World War II post-war poverty of Austria, so not only did Zimmermann have no formal training, but his skis were often "fourth or fifth-hand." At 15, his father forced him to learn a trade, and he schooled in a Parisian chef program. He returned to Austria by 18 and won a clean sweep of the 1958 Junior Championships. When he was promoted to the National team, Zimmermann commented "For me it was also the realization of a childhood dream, a dream interrupted by a kitchen."

Career peak and Olympics

He won two medals at the 1962 World Championships in Chamonix, a gold in giant slalom and a bronze in downhill. He was named the "Skier of the Year" in 1963 by European journalists.

For the 1964 Olympics in Austria, the "dashing" and "handsome" Zimmermann was heavily favored to win. However, the course at Patscherkofel was quite difficult (nicknamed the "Course of Fear"), but he still managed to win by 0.74 seconds. (Franz Klammer famously won on the same course a dozen years later in 1976.) He did not enter the slalom and did not finish the giant slalom. Despite not sweeping the alpine events like compatriot Toni Sailer in 1956, Zimmermann appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine in the United States.

Personal life

Zimmermann is a hotel owner in Lech am Arlberg and suffers from multiple sclerosis. Two other alpine medalists from the 1964 Winter Olympics also developed MS, Jimmie Heuga (1943-2010) and Pepi Stiegler.

External links

• Egon Zimmermann at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-ski.com – Egon Zimmermann – World Cup season standings
• Egon Zimmermann in the Aeiou Encyclopedia (German)
• Ski-db.com – results – 1964 Winter Olympics
• Sports-Reference.com – Olympic results – Egon Zimmermann
• Hotel Kristberg – Egon Zimmermann – (English)