The ski world champion and “South Tyrolean athlete of the century”, Gustav Thöni, grew up in Trafoi all’Ortles in the Val Venosta valley
Gustav Thöni was born on the 28th of February 1951. His enthusiasm for winter sports is certainly also due to the beautiful surroundings of the Val Venosta valley: In his home ski resort, the Trafoi Skiing Area in the Stelvio National Park, surrounded by the gigantic mountains of the impressive Ortles Alps, he practised his first turns on skis.
Still today, Gustav Thöni is one of the best known and most successful top athletes of Italy. His victories include 24 World Cup races (11 giant slalom races, 8 slalom, 1 parallel slalom and 4 combined races), at the 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics he won 1 gold and 2 silver medals, and in total he's a five-time World Champion: He won the Alpine Ski World Cup in the 1970/71, 1971/72, 1972/73 and 1974/75 winter seasons. After the 1980 Winter Olympics, the top athlete decided to pass on his experience to young athletes as a coach and ended his career.
In the movie "A Hundredth of a Second" (1981) he acted as as skier. One of his best known students is Alberto Tomba who won numerous ski races in the Eighties and Nineties. Today Gustav Thöni lives and works in Trafoi all'Ortles, where he runs the Trafoi Ski School and the Hotel Bella Vista - his birthplace which was transformed into a hotel - together with his wife and his three daughters Petra Maria, Susanne and Anna. In 2022, his book "Gustav Thöni - Lebenskurven einer Skilegende" was published in German and Italian language - it is more than a simple biography.
