Olympic journey through time – today: February 13th

Two important South Tyrolean Olympic delicacies can also be found in the sports annals from February 13th.

It was exactly 50 years ago that the then 20-year-old Erika Lechner from Meransen above Mühlbach made sports history at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble (France) - from several perspectives.

Firstly, Lechner won the first ever Olympic gold medal by a South Tyrolean athlete. Secondly, it was also the first Olympic medal for a woman from South Tyrol - the next ones had to wait another 26 years until Gerda Weißensteiner and Isolde Kostner won a gold and two bronze medals in Lillehammer in 1994. And thirdly, Lechner's Olympic victory was preceded by a scandal.

Three GDR female tobogganers disqualified because of heated runners After the first two runs in Grenoble, Erika Lechner was in third place behind the two GDR lugers Ortrun Enderlein and Anna-Maria Müller and ahead of their compatriot Angela Knösel. When a jury member put snow on the runners of the GDR sleds during a spot check halfway through the competition, it melted immediately. The three GDR athletes were then immediately disqualified and removed from the rankings because they had heated the blades, something that has been banned since 1964.

Erika Lechner was suddenly in the lead and was able to extend her lead a bit in the third run. When run four had to be canceled, the sensation was perfect - the young athlete from the Eisacktal mountain village was the Olympic champion. Behind her in the medal ranks were the two FRG lugers Christa Schmuck and Angelika Dünhaupt. “Intrigue against the new GDR” The disqualification of the three sledders caused a lot of anger and incomprehension in the GDR delegation. It was even suspected that there was an intrigue against the GDR, which had competed with an independent team for the first time in Grenoble.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Erika Lechner's Olympic victory, the daily newspaper “Dolomiten” conducted a detailed interview with the Merans native a few days ago (February 10th). The following video contains some of Lechner's statements at the time, which show how sorry she was for the disqualification of her sports teammates.

Thöni-Cousins defeated by Spaniards Four years after Erika Lechner's triumph, there was also a memorable race in Sapporo, Japan, on February 13, 1972: In the men's slalom, the Spaniard Francisco Fernandez Ochoa won his country's only gold medal at a Winter Olympics since then. The two cousins Gustav and Roland Thöni from Trafoi won silver and bronze, a respectable distance behind Ochoa. Gustav Thöni had been crowned Olympic giant slalom champion three days earlier (see “Time travel from February 10.2th. ).

This video gives impressions of the Winter Games in Japan at the time.

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Olympic journey through time – today: February 13th

Day after day, “SportNews” looks back at South Tyrolean Olympic highlights that happened on that particular day at some point in the past. This time it's February 13th.

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