The Alpine Ski WM 1978

OK WM 2011 am 09.01.2008 - 11:52 Uhr

In 1978 Alpine Ski Championships were held for the first time in Germany, they took place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen from January 28th to February 5th 1978. After total of 25 Alpine World championships it was high time that Germany – the great skiing country – could enjoy the benefit of home field advantage.

Five medals for the DSV
With perseverance it was tried to get this major event to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the success came finally in 1978. It is some sort of a recurring event, if you consider the situation of today, that after 33 years of insisting and trying finally the World Championships come back to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
In 1978 the performance of the German Ski Team was at a peak, starting with good results in St.Moritz 1974 (medals won by Treichl and Junginger) and continued with the smashing success of Rosi Mittermayer at the Olympic Games 1976 in Innsbruck, finally followed by the
5 medals achieved at the first Alpine Ski Championships on home soil.
What a great reward for the big effort of the organizers and helpers in Garmisch-Partenkirchen! But the success was definitively not an incidental result, it was the result of sound and systematic work based on scientific sports studies.

Great audience
A gold medal for Maria Epple (giant slalom), 1 silver medal for each Irene Epple (downhill) and Pamela Behr (slalom), and 2 silver medals at the men competitions by Michael Veith (downhill) and Sepp Ferstl (combination) were the proud results of the athletes of the DSV.
No wonder that the over 200.000 spectators who came to the slopes during these days were thrilled. The number of spectators was surprisingly amazing at the time and they created such a fair, positive and sporty ambience that this was also communicated to the 500 millions of TV spectators. Altogether the event became a tremendous publicity success for the Ski Sport.

balanced budget
The general conditions were perfect. The slopes were either new or modernized, all according to safety standards and the preparation was outstanding thanks to the abundance of snow. Obviously the prayer for snow of the prime minister of Bavaria Alfons Goppel during the opening ceremony was heard.
Overall costs for the World Championships were numbered to 18 million Deutsch Mark (aprox. 9 million €), and the balanced budget was proudly presented.

Let us not forget the other winners
The Austrian Annemarie Moser with a gold medal in downhill and combination and Ingemar Stenmark from Sweden with gold medals, one for slalom and one for giant slalom were the absolute stars of the championships. Gold in slalom for Lea Sölkner and for Josef Walcher made Austria to the most successful nation of the event. Not to forget Liechtenstein, because this rather small nation won 5 medals in total. (Andy Wenzel, Paul and Willi Frommelt, Hanni Wenzel)

Show of the winter sport industry
How fast moving our time is can be pointed out shortly by a couple of examples.
The significant influence of commercialization over the ski sport was a serious discussion in 1978, also the lobby work of the industry. In the official book of the championships you can read a resume about the show of the industry during the World Championship days. Today that would be more than just normal.


bonus at disposition of the athlete only at the end of the carrier
Also the exasperating problem of the amateur status of the athletes, which was keeping the German and International sport busy since 1900 came up for the umpteenth time and the president of the FIS, Marc Hodler, pleaded for an appropriate compensation to the active athletes. The active members of the DSV joining the World Championships finally did not only get an allowance and money for their loss of earnings but also bonuses. (Gold medals 14.500 DM, silver medals 9.500 DM). The money went to a blocked account and was at the disposition of the athletes only after their active carrier.

What really stayed in mind is the memory of the success of our athletes, the pleasant almost cozy atmosphere, the hospitality of the people in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the perfect organization of the event.
And… we did have enough snow!

See more of the 1978 event…