Discipline: Alpine Skiing


With its dome-like, treeless summit, the Patscherkofel mountain stands 2,246 m above sea level at its highest point and is equipped with a cable car just under four kilometres in length. At a speed of seven metres per second, the journey from the lower to the upper lift station takes around 15 minutes. When it comes to sporting events, Innsbruck’s local mountain has already helped write history in the field of alpine skiing on three separate occasions.

The men’s alpine speed events of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympic Games were held on the Patscherkofel. In 1964, Egon Zimmermann from Vorarlberg celebrated the greatest success of his career when he won the Downhill race ahead of the Frenchman Leó Lacroix and the German Wolfgang Bertels. Twelve years later, another Austrian entered the Olympic history books: Franz Klammer from Carinthia became an Austrian sporting legend with a breathtaking win over his long-term rival, Bernhard Russi from Switzerland, to clinch the gold medal in the Downhill event, with Herbert Plank from Italy taking the third place. Several decades later, on the 21 December 1998, the Austrian Ski Team delivered an outstanding performance which will probably never be seen again. Only included in the Wold Cup schedule as a replacement for another Super G cancelled earlier in the season, the Patscherkofel race saw the Austrian team celebrate a nine-fold victory thanks to Hermann Maier, Christian Mayer, Stephan Eberharter, Fritz Strobl, Rainer Salzgeber, Hans Knauß, Patrick Wirth, Andreas Schifferer and Werner Franz, who all finished within a second of each other.

During the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012, Patscherkofel will host not only the speed events but all alpine skiing competitions.

For further information visit the official website at www.patscherkofelbahnen.at .