Herbert Plank –
Skier racer from South Tyrol
Your host Herbert Plank in the seventies was one of the most successful ski racers in Italy. He began his career in 1972 by winning the gold medal at the inaugural European Junior Championship.
Then he became one of the few skiers who could break the then Austrian dominance in the World Cup. Until the year 1980, Herbert Plank won a total of five races and was in the top ten more than 45 times.
His absolute specialty was downhill races. In this category he celebrated his greatest successes.
Herbert Plank celebrated the greatest success of his career by winning the bronze medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck. At the downhill race at Patscherkofel he finished third behind the then dominant Franz Klammer and Bernhard Russi. In 1980 at the Olympic Games in Lake Placid he again could reach the sixth place. At the end of the 1980/81 season the sportsman announced his retirement from ski racing. His son Andy became the successor of his father in 2009 and became Junior World Champion in downhill skiing.
Following the sporting passion of your host Herbert Plank, the spacious and modern holiday apartments on the farm Ralserhof are named after the places of his World Cup victories.
