Pirmin Zurbriggen

Pirmin Zurbriggen (born 4 February 1963) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the most successful ski racers ever, he won the overall World Cup title four times, an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Downhill, and nine World Championships medals (4 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze).

Pirmin Zurbriggen

Alpine skier
Zurbriggen in 2014
Disciplines	Downhill, Super-G, Giant slalom, Slalom, Combined
Born	(1963-02-04) 4 February 1963 Saas Almagell, Valais, Switzerland
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
World Cup debut	4 January 1981 (age 17)
Retired	17 March 1990 (age 27)
Website	zurbriggen.ch
Olympics
Teams	2 (1984, 1988)
Medals	2 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams	4 (1982, 1985, 1987, 1989)
Medals	9 (4 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	10 (1981–1990)
Wins	40
Podiums	83
Overall titles	4 (1984, 1987, 1988, 1990)
Discipline titles	12
Medal record Men's Alpine Skiing Representing   Switzerland International alpine ski competitions Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 1 0 1 World Championships 4 4 1 Total 5 4 2 World Cup race podiums Event 1st 2nd 3rd Slalom 2 2 2 Giant 7 6 6 Super-G 10 9 4 Downhill 10 5 4 Combined 11 4 1 Parallel 0 0 0 Total 40 26 17 Olympic Games 1988 Calgary Downhill 1988 Calgary Giant Slalom World Championships 1985 Bormio Downhill 1985 Bormio Combined 1987 Crans-Montana Super-G 1987 Crans-Montana Giant Slalom 1985 Bormio Giant Slalom 1987 Crans-Montana Downhill 1987 Crans-Montana Combined 1989 Vail Super-G 1989 Vail Giant Slalom

Biography

Zurbriggen was born in Saas-Almagell in the canton of Valais, the son of Alois, an innkeeper, and Ida. His father competed as a ski racer in local competitions in the 1940s and 1950s, but quit the sport after his brother was killed in a training accident.[1] Zurbriggen made his World Cup debut in January 1981, a month before his 18th birthday. With his victory in the downhill at Kitzbühel in January 1985 at age 21, he became the first to win World Cup races in all five disciplines. (The fifth discipline, Super G, was added in December 1982.)[2] Incidentally Marc Girardelli, the second to enter this exclusive circle, won his first downhill race four years later at the same venue.

Zurbriggen retired from international competition after having won the 1990 World Cup overall title – his fourth, which was then the most overall titles won by a single racer, reached only once before by Gustav Thöni in 1975. Again it was Marc Girardelli who followed him in 1991 with a fourth overall title, and Girardelli added another in 1993 to become the only male racer with five overall titles in World Cup history.

Zurbriggen grew up in the remote village of Saas-Almagell, near Saas-Fee. With a total of 40 World Cup victories over nine years and five gold medals, he belongs to the "All-Time Greats" of alpine skiing, ranking fifth in all-time wins and having 169 Top Ten finishes.[3]

Zurbriggen left the World Cup tour as a hero to start a family; he was married the previous summer (30 June 1989) to Monika Julen (the sister of his best friend on the Swiss ski team, Max Julen),[4] with whom he has five children: Elia, Pirmin Jr., Maria, Alain and Leonie, who have all competed in ski racing.[5] He is the older brother of Heidi Zurbriggen, a winner of three World Cup downhill races, and a distant cousin of Silvan Zurbriggen.[6]

Zurbriggen now runs the "Wellness Hotel Pirmin Zurbriggen" with his parents in Saas-Almagell and another, "Apparthotel Zurbriggen," in Zermatt.[7] In addition, after his World Cup career had ended he partnered with Authier Ski company on a line of signature skis.[8]

World Cup results

Season standings

Season	Age	Overall	Slalom	Giant Slalom	Super G	Downhill	Combined
1981	18	31	—	17	not run	—	18
1982	19	11	33	6		—	7
1983	20	6	21	4	not awarded (w/ GS)	26	3
1984	21	1	24	1		10	2
1985	22	2	14	2		5	9
1986	23	2	6	10	2	11	1
1987	24	1	21	1	1	1	1
1988	25	1	9	4	1	1	4
1989	26	2	15	1	1	4	3
1990	27	1	11	6	1	3	1

Season titles

• 13 titles (4 overall, 2 DH, 4 SG, 3 GS) plus unofficial 3 K

Season	Discipline
1984	Overall
	Giant Slalom
1987	Overall
	Downhill
	Super-G
	Giant Slalom
1988	Overall
	Downhill
	Super G
1989	Super-G
	Giant Slalom
1990	Overall
	Super-G

Race victories

• 40 wins (10 DH, 10 SG, 7 GS, 11 SC, 2 SL)
• 83 podiums (40 wins, 26 second place, 17 third place)

Downhill Date Location 11-Jan-1985 Kitzbühel 12-Jan-1985 Kitzbühel 16-Aug-1986 Las Leñas 05-Dec-1986 Val d'Isère 10-Jan-1987 Garmisch 25-Jan-1987 Kitzbühel 07-Mar-1987 Aspen, CO 09-Jan-1988 Val d'Isère 29-Jan-1988 Schladming 06-Dec-1989 Val Gardena Giant slalom Date Location 24-Mar-1982 San Sicario 11-Jan-1983    Adelboden 05-Mar-1984 Aspen, CO 13-Jan-1987    Adelboden 20-Jan-1987    Adelboden 15-Feb-1987 Todtnau 29-Nov-1988 Val Thorens Slalom Date Location 10-Dec-1984 Sestriere 23-Feb-1986 Åre

Super-G Date Location 19-Dec-1983 Val Gardena 20-Mar-1984 Oppdal 07-Dec-1984 Puy-Saint-Vincent 17-Mar-1985 Panorama, BC 28-Feb-1986 Hemsedal 08-Mar-1987 Aspen, CO 27-Nov-1988 Schladming 12-Dec-1989 Sestriere 06-Feb-1990 Courmayeur 10-Mar-1990 Hemsedal Combined Date Location 24-Jan-1982    Wengen 22-Dec-1982 Campiglio 29-Jan-1984 Garmisch 11-Jan-1985 Kitzbühel 19-Jan-1986 Kitzbühel 23-Feb-1986 Åre 18-Jan-1987    Wengen 25-Jan-1987 Kitzbühel 22-Dec-1988 St. Anton 12-Jan-1990 Schladming 21-Jan-1990 Kitzbühel

World championship results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant   Slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
1985	22	DNF	2	not run	1	1
1987	24	DNF	1	1	2	2
1989	26	DNF	3	2	15	4

Olympic results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant   Slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
1984	21	DNF1	DNF1	not run	4	not run
1988	25	7	3	5	1	DNF SL2

See also

• Ski World Cup Most podiums & Top 10 results

References

1. Johnson, William Oscar (January 27, 1988). "The Swiss Golden Boy". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
2. victories of Pirmin Zurbriggen on fis-ski.com, sorted by date, retrieved December 30, 2011
3. Most Valuable Racers – Top 50, retrieved February 22, 2010
4. Harvey, Randy (February 8, 1988). "PIRMIN ZURBRIGGEN: The Pride of the Swiss Mountain Country Is an Often Humble, Yet Daring Young Man Who Could Win Three Gold Medals in Skiing". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
5. Despont, Christian; Monnard, Bertrand (December 28, 2014). "Les enfants Zurbriggen arrivent en force" [The children of Zurbriggen arrive in force]. Le Matin (Switzerland) (in French). Retrieved March 4, 2017.
6. Lang, Patrick (December 18, 2010). "Silvan Zurbriggen on Pirmin's footsteps". FIS-Ski.com. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
7. Zurbriggen Homepage, retrieved November 22, 2007
8. California Ski Company (2003), The Authier Story, archived from the original on December 27, 2007, retrieved November 19, 2007

External links

• Pirmin Zurbriggen at the International Ski Federation
• Pirmin Zurbriggen World Cup standings at the International Ski Federation
• Pirmin Zurbriggen at Ski-DB Alpine Ski Database
• Pirmin Zurbriggen at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)

Awards
Preceded by Étienne Dagon	Swiss Sportsman of the Year 1985	Succeeded by Werner Günthör