Wolfgang Loitzl

Austrian ski jumper Wolfgang Loitzl participated in the 2002 Salt Lake City and the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. He placed an unfortunate fourth in the team large hill event in 2002. In 2006, he won the team gold medal in the large hill competition and placed 11th in the individual normal hill, and tenth in the large hill.

Loitzl won seven gold medals at World Championships, an individual gold in 2009 in the normal hill event and six team golds (2001 team normal hill, 2005 team normal and team large hill, 2007 team large hill, 2009 team large hill, and 2013 team large hill). He added a bronze medal with the team large hill in 2001. At Ski Flying World Championships he won a team gold in 2010 and a team bronze in 2004.

Individually, his greatest moment came when he won the Four Hills Tournament in 2009 and was subsequently named Sportsman of the Year in Austria. Loitzl won 18 World Cup events in total. He later took over his parents’ farm and primarily worked in forestry. He raised two sons.