Alpine King and Ski Napoleon: Peter Schröcksnadel resigns

This marks the end of the career of one of the most influential and remarkable sports officials of all time in Austria. During the uniquely successful Schröcksnadel era, there were 1.288 World Cup victories as well as 114 Olympic and 295 World Cup medals in Olympic sports alone (excluding paraskiing). 29 of the 30 Alpine Nations Cups won in a row between 1989/90 and 2018/19 as well as 24 overall World Cup victories were won in the North Tyrolean era.

A total of 19 major events have been held under Innsbruck since 1990, including the three Alpine World Championships in Saalbach (1991), St. Anton (2001) and Schladming (2013). Schröcksnadel will be watching the next one in 2025 in Saalbach-Hinterglemm as a spectator. Farewell without sadness Schröcksnadel emphasizes that he is leaving without any sadness. “I am handing over a very valuable association that is doing well financially, is great organizationally and is very, very good in terms of sport,” he said on the current one APA -Interview convinced of successful work before he handed over the agenda to his successor Karl Schmidhofer in his last official act on June 19th in Villach.

In the end, the nomination of his successor would have almost permanently damaged Schröcksnadel's "life's work", because the search process was anything but smooth and not really according to Schröcksnadel's ideas. Nevertheless, the long-term boss ultimately promised an orderly handover and good cooperation in his position as a board member in the FIS. He will not interfere, but will always be there to provide advice and support.

The North Tyrolean was a pioneer. Because when, in 1990, in the midst of the successful years of Petra Kronberger (today women's representative in the ÖSV), he took on the job “that no one wanted at the time”, the ÖSV was a sports club at the mercy of politics and the ski industry. Today, “Ski Austria”, based in Innsbruck, is a successful million-dollar company including corporations and a flagship for winter sports and tourism. Schröcksnadel emphasizes that keeping skiing independent and free from political influences was one of his recipes for success. It is something he also recommends to his successor. “I never wanted to be rich, I just didn’t want to go broke.” Peter Schröcksnadel The reason that Schröcksnadel has a good knack for business probably lies in his childhood. At the age of 15, the North Tyrolean, who was born on July 30, 1941 in Innsbruck and grew up there, had to fend for himself. After graduating from the HAK in 1959, the 23-year-old, who was busy searching for avalanches in the mountains, dropped out of his law studies because an advertising expert made the idea of ski slope markings and advertising attractive to him. This gave rise to the companies Sitour and Feratel, which now operate worldwide with tourist information systems, and which made Schröcksnadel so financially independent that he was able to run the ÖSV on a voluntary basis. Buying and renovating ski areas, mountain railways and hotels at home and abroad is another mainstay of the North Tyrolean. “I never wanted to get rich, I just didn’t want to go bankrupt,” is how he recently described his strategy both for himself and initially for the association.

But rough times also accompanied the Schröcksnadel era. The fatal racing accidents of Gernot Reinstadler (1991) and Ulrike Maier (1994) almost made him give up. Overall, crises motivated him to fight. For example, when athletes like Andreas Goldberger, Anna Veith (Fenninger) or, most recently, Katharina Liensberger tried to isolate themselves. He brought them all back into the association. But Schröcksnadel was particularly stubborn when it came to crises such as the Mee too allegations or doping scandals. Convicted athletes lost Schröcksnadel's trust in a flash, but in all other cases he fought to the death for the association's image.

A visionary and yet not without controversy: Peter Schröcksnadel. © APA / HERBERT NEUBAUER

Probably most memorable in 2006 during and after the Olympics in Turin. “When I'm pissed off, that's when I'm at my best,” he said at the time, annoyed about what he thought was a “fake thing.” “If I hadn't stayed, Austria would have suffered the biggest scandal in doping history at the time,” Schröcksnadel is still convinced today. His spontaneous comment that Austria was “too small for good doping” is legendary. Likewise the somewhat strange founding of a European Ski Association including the 2009 European Indoor Championships.

It can be assumed that Schröcksnadel's successor has a different leadership style than the often original North Tyrolean, who is still an enthusiastic ski racer himself and, like Niki Lauda, was always available on his cell phone for athletes and journalists and was also usually the mouthpiece of the association. But he emphasized again and again that he was not a person of power. Rather, he always tried to be part of the team.

Corona extended Schröcksnadel's presidency by one year. But he definitely doesn't want to be an 80-year-old president, the 79-year-old explained why he sees now as the right time to say goodbye. In addition to his FIS job, the multiple grandfather Schröcksnadel will primarily dedicate himself to a promising cancer research project in the future. He recommends that his successor Schmidhofer keep the association as free as possible from political influences. Because: “This is the most important decision in sport.”

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Alpine King and Ski Napoleon: Peter Schröcksnadel resigns

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