Thirty years ago, the tragedy of Rudi Nierlich: the memory of the man who challenged Tomba and made Austria dream

On May 18, 1991, at the age of 25 and after having won three world titles between slalom and giant, the accident that took away a phenomenal talent from the world of skiing.

Tuesday 18 May 2021 4 minutes reading time

Thirty years ago, today. It is impossible to forget Rudolf Nierlich, for all "Rudi". He was 25 years old, he was in the midst of an already extraordinary career and ready to give life to dozens of other battles, between slalom and giant, with Alberto Tomba and the other champions of the time. A cursed road accident, that 18 May 1991, took away a snow phenomenon, capable at a very young age of winning three world titles, practically one behind the other. Double world gold in Vail 1989, in giant and slalom, then again between the wide doors in the home event, Saalbach 1991, which made him already "immortal" in the eyes of the millions of Austrian fans who already adored him . Eight victories in the World Cup, for that pure talent who was already a giant world champion at the junior level, in 1984, a few months before reaching the points in the World Cup (15th in the combined Campiglio) at the age of 18. A couple of seasons of apprenticeship (in the meantime he will win the European Cup) and here in the first months of 1987 the great satisfactions arrive already at the highest levels: 7th in the super-g of the Crans-Montana World Championship, then in March the first podium in CdM with the 3rd place in the giant of Sarajevo. On 30 January 1988, a few days before the Calgary Olympics (where he will finish 5th in the gold giant of Tomba), the first victory in the maximum circuit on the occasion of the Schladming giant, with the triumphs in the slalom temples, in Wengen and Kitzbuehel, interspersed with world titles and various podium finishes in absolute rankings. Right at the end of that 1990/91 season which, for Rudi, will be the last of his career, the Austrian ace finished on the podium in the absolute World Cup (third behind Girardelli and Tomba), always third also in that of slalom and second in giant behind the great Bolognese rival, who will mourn him just over two months later (Nierlich had won the last race on 10 March 1991 in the Aspen slalom). It was a rainy morning in St. Wolfgang (Upper Austria), when the three-time world champion had a road accident on his home roads that was fatal to him: he died a few hours later at the hospital in Bad Ischl, where he was born February 20, 1966. Unforgettable Rudi.

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