A Ski Pioneer

Modest as this man is, he would never make a big deal out of his sporting successes but throughout his life he was an all-round talent on many continents. As a professional first-generation racer he achieved numerous victories. Then he was a top trainer who trained ski stars such as Annemarie Moser-Pröll, Monika Kaserer, Lea Sölkner and Regina Sackl at the end of the 70s and at the end of the 90s the then 16-year-old Lindsey Kildow – later Vonn. In his ski school in Lofer a trace of his pioneering spirit can still be felt today. Nostalgic pictures show this nature boy, young, tanned and robust in the middle of the glorious white snow or as a child in Unken, his home village in the Salzburger Saalachtal. His ski career began there on the “Beutlingskopf”. “Of course we had no help uphill and we had to tramp, tramp, tramp up”, says Sturm laughing and there it is again, this enthusiasm which sparks out of his eyes. As he describes the scene in this way you can really see him and his comrades in front of you: how they make their still awkward turns with bright red cheeks. If one of them breaks the tip of his ash-wood ski, it’s no problem. The “Farmer Franz” repairs it in his picturesque workshop. And yes, the first drag lift in Unken at the end of the 1940s was naturally a sensation, explains the 81-year-old and enthuses, “It was simply luxury for us. We were dragged up there and could save all our energy for training.” The gates were sharpened hazelnut sticks. At twelve years old Sturm was already a participant when Salzburg’s elite youth met for one-week training camps in the Hochkönig area, for example. With a rucksack on his back and skis on his shoulder it was off out into the wider world. At least it felt like that to the boy since he had to take the bus, change to the train and finally trudge to his accommodation on foot – an entire day’s journey.

“Podium places are there to win, not to freak out”

This is the motto of the youngster, who at ten years old belonged to the Salzburg school team, then the youth team, B-team and then between 1963 and 1967 the A-team (national team) of the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV). As a member of the national team, he celebrated victories in the FIS A races, today’s World Cup Races, in Switzerland, France, Italy and Turkey. In 1966, he was the Austrian vice-champion in downhill behind Egon Zimmermann as well as third in the coveted combination. A year later he won the Swiss “Gornergrat Derby”, on one of the longest downhill courses in the world. However his parents insisted on a “secure job” so he completed training as a bricklayer and policeman. This, because he could still train and for him there was “nothing more important than skiing”. He was able to fulfil his dream: from 1967 he spent the whole year on skis, flying from one destination to the next or he travelled by ship: he still remembers the long journey on the “Prinz Eugenia” from Genua to Chile vividly. He had to indulge in doing nothing and appear at dinner in a dinner jacket.