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Franz Heinzer (born April 11, 1962) in Rickenbach, Switzerland is a former alpine ski racer, who specialized above all in downhill. He was World Cup Downhill Champion three consecutive seasons (1991,1992,1993), second only to Franz Klammer (5). He won a total of 17 World Cup downhill races, third behind Klammer, (25) and Peter Mueller,(19). Together with Toni Sailer, Jean Claude Killy and Karl Schranz he must be considered one of the six best downhill racers of all time.
He won at least once, at each of the world's most famous downhill venues: Kitzbühel (3x), Wengen, Val Gardena (2x), Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Val d'Isere, Aspen, Lake Louise and Sankt Anton. His victory in the downhill event at the 1991 World Championships came after three fourth places at previous championships (Schladming (1982), Bormio (1985) and Crans-Montana (1987). He didn't compete at Vail in 1989. At the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehamer his ski binding broke a few metres after the start. He ended his illustrious career a few weeks afterwards.
Now he runs his own sports products company (in Altdorf) and since the winter of 2004, also works as the assistant coach of Swiss National Downhill Team.
[edit] World Cup victories
[edit] Overall results
[edit] Individual victories
Val Gardena
Val d'Isère
Åre
Laax
Beaver Creek
Kitzbühel
Lake Louise
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
