South Tyrol's first ski world champion is celebrating a milestone birthday

The future world champion grew up in a large family in Val Gardena. In the result lists he sometimes appears as Karl or Carlo, while the name “Carletto” became common among fans of the young racer. From the late 1950s, the young Senoner was part of a team of successful Val Gardena ski racers who were supported by the former top skier and ski instructor Hans Nogler. They would dominate Italian ski racing in the 1960s.

Carlo Senoner was one of the youngest young hopefuls, having already caused a sensation at the age of 14 and won a series of victories in junior races. So he found his way into the Italian national team early on and was allowed to travel to the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley (today the Californian winter sports resort is known as Palisades Tahoe) in 1960 as the youngest participant. The young South Tyrolean was able to draw attention to himself with remarkable achievements, finishing 13th in the slalom and 17th in the giant slalom.

<a data-caption="Das italienische WM-Team mit Trainer Hans Nogler nach der Rückkehr aus Portillo 1966, 2. von links Carlo Senoner mit seiner Goldmedaille © Walter Mori" data-fancybox="inline-178951" target="_image" href="https://s3-images.sportnews.bz/_images/scale/1280x1280/img/2023/10/das-italienische-wm-team-mit-trainer-hans-nogler-nach-der-rueckkehr-aus-portillo-1966-2-von-links-carlo-senoner-mit-seiner-goldmedaille.jpg"> The Italian World Cup team with coach Hans Nogler after returning from Portillo 1966, 2nd from left Carlo Senoner with his gold medal © Walter Mori

Carlo Senoner's early 1960s were marked by successes and setbacks. He took part in numerous FIS A races, which were the most prestigious competitions before the introduction of the Alpine Ski World Cup in 1967. He celebrated a great success in 1963 at the legendary 3-Tre in Madonna di Campiglio with victory in the combination. This also gave rise to hopes for next year's Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck. In the run-up to the same, however, Senoner was hit by bad luck with injuries. He suffered a total of eleven broken bones in a stroke, so that the doctors treating him had serious doubts about whether he would ever be able to race again. During this time, the ski racer devoted himself privately to building his guesthouse “Chalet” in Wolkenstein, which he ran together with his wife Angelika née Mussner.

World champion in August His big moment finally came at the Alpine World Ski Championships in 1966. These were among the most unusual events of their kind, as they took place in August of that year in Chile - in the middle of the European summer. The women's and men's events were dominated by the French team, which won seven of the eight possible gold medals. The only runner to break through this phalanx was the then 22-year-old from Senon. On August 14, 1966, he relegated the Frenchman Guy Perillat to second place with a lead of 0,69 seconds. The young man from Val Gardena celebrated on the shoulders of his teammates Ivo Mahlknecht and Gerhard Mussner after achieving his long-awaited international victory. The world champion received an enthusiastic welcome at home with his teammates and was recognized in the press.

He ensured that the only Alpine World Ski Championships in the southern hemisphere went down in the annals of Italian skiing. At the same time, Senoner was the first Italian world champion since Zeno Colò in 1952. However, the competitions in Portillo were disappointing for the major skiing nations of Austria and Switzerland, which is why structural reforms began in the associations. Carlo Senoner took part in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble and ended his career that year. His pension was named “Portillo” in memory of his world championship title and is still used by his successors today.

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South Tyrol's first ski world champion is celebrating a milestone birthday

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