World Championship sensation winner

Skiing idol: “As if an alien had landed”

Stephan Eberharter celebrated numerous successes in the Ski World Cup, but he was a sensational winner at his home World Championships in 1991.

(Bild: GEPA)

"The skiing world was out of joint, it was upside down," read the article on January 23, 1991. Stephan Eberharter had just become super-G world champion in Saalbach-Hinterglemm. "The ski comet." What the then 21-year-old experienced in the hours that followed was difficult to comprehend. "Everyone around me suddenly went crazy. As if an alien had landed," said the Tyrolean looking back. From Tuesday, another World Ski Championships will be held in Glemmtal.

Eberharter was a sensational winner. Having only ever finished on the podium once before in the World Cup, he left not only the other medal winners Kjetil-Andre Aamodt and Franck Piccard behind him in front of 10,000 spectators on the course set by Austrian Norway coach Dieter Bartsch, but also his team-mates Günther Mader (12th), Helmut Mayer (19th) and Hubert Strolz (22nd). "I managed a dream run. Every turn on the move, not a single skid, nothing ...", said Eberharter at the time.

Home advantage on the Zwölferkogel
The man from Zillertal had made the most of his home advantage and knew about the pitfalls of the course after all the training on the Zwölferkogel, where he had regularly "ironed out" his more prominent compatriots. "That's exactly how it was set up for the race, with a difficulty in the lower third, which I mastered very well." He had put "mega pressure" on himself, because he was already expecting a medal. "When I went to bed, I told myself I'd get the gold tomorrow and nothing else."

Stephan Eberharter

(Bild: APA/EXPA/JOHANN GRODER)

"Almost unknown" to the public until the World Championships, he felt "as if he had been torn out of life" afterwards. While life had just been "normal", friends suddenly asked anxiously whether he was now "three steps higher". As a down-to-earth person, he wondered about many things on the one hand, and observed everything with excitement on the other. In the time without cell phones, he used the hotel telephone and telegrams from "the Federal President, the Federal Chancellor and everyone who is anyone" to receive congratulations.

In Stummer's memory, half of the grandstand at the Alpine Combined was already filled with Zillertal locals. He thanked them with the second gold medal. And the APA reported in its chronology: "13.20: Eberharter goes all out once again, sets the overall best time in the slalom and is the overall winner."

Home World Championships as a blessing
The now 55-year-old not only appreciates his best times, but also the more difficult phases. "I rate Saalbach very highly, but I don't want to pick out individual highlights, I always look at my whole career, it was like the stock market. I wouldn't want to miss the negative years because they ultimately made me who I am today. Not to give up, to keep going, to bite through."

Eberharter has no great advice on how Austria's nominees should deal with the particularities of a home World Championships. "Everyone is different and reacts differently to pressure and stress. Everyone has to see how they deal with it for themselves." In principle, however, a major event at home is a blessing, if only because you save yourself all the stress of traveling.

However, he also enjoyed racing where no one else was there - such as at the Olympic Games in Nagano (giant slalom silver) or Salt Lake City (giant slalom gold). In his career, Eberharter has won four Olympic and World Championship medals, 29 World Cup victories and two overall successes.