Anderl Molterer Dead at 92
From the ski bum days.
I had not seen coverage of this. So. I post in memory. The first time I encountered Anderl Molterer I was in high school, and I knew who he was and of his achievements. There was a partial slalom course set up on at Aspen Highlands, 1967 or 1968, and I skied down it, knocking over a couple of the gates. This was before rapid gates. He appeared from above, irritated that I had run his private practice course and messed it up. But when he saw that I was in the process of hiking up to fix the gates, he become pleasant, for an Austrian. I knew him only as an acquaintance, in his shop, or to see him on the mountain and observe him in the early mornings skiing like a God down the mountain, casually upright, almost no turns and moving at high speed.Ski legend Anderl Molterer died at the age of 92.
1931 – 2023
The “white lightning bolt from Kitz” is dead: skiing mourns the death of Anderl Molterer
© gepa klansek
Thursday, October 26th, 2023, 00:40
“The “white lightning from Kitz”, Anderl Molterer, died on Tuesday at the age of 92. The ski legend from Kitzbühel won nine times on the Hahnenkamm.
Kitzbühel – Austria's skiing lost one of its greatest legends: Andreas “Anderl” Molterer died on Tuesday a few days after his 92nd birthday. The Kitzbüheler went down in history as the “white lightning bolt of Kitz” because of his blonde hair color and his successes. His nine victories on the infamous Hahnenkamm course remain an unrivaled record to this day (2 x downhill, 3 x slalom, 4 x combination).
There were also over 50 further successes in FIS races, there were five victories in the Lauberhorn races and six in the Arlberg-Kandahar races. In 1956 Molterer won two Olympic medals in the giant slalom (silver) and the downhill (bronze) in Cortina d'Ampezzo (ITA), and in Åre (SWE) in 1954 there was also World Championship bronze (giant slalom). Molterer was part of the six-person Kitzbühel miracle team alongside Fritz Huber, Hias Leitner, Ernst Hinterseer, Christian Pravda and Toni Sailer. The trained carpenter later emigrated to the USA and became a four-time professional world champion. In 1966, Molterer and his companions founded the “Red Lodge Racing Camp” in the US state of Montana. It was only this year that he returned to Kitzbühel after more than 60 years in the USA.
“The KSC will forever keep a worthy memory of him as an extraordinary athlete and exemplary person,” mourned the Kitzbühel Ski Club. “The Austrian Ski Association will always honor the memory of Anderl Molterer, who was always a role model as a person,” wrote the ÖSV. (TT” More PicturesMore Pictures
