Sepp WEILER

Ski jumper Sepp Weiler was severely wounded during World War II and blinded in his left eye. Despite this handicap he managed to win 35 of 36 ski jumping competitions in the 1948-49 season. He was eighth in the normal hill event at the 1952 Oslo Winter Olympics and qualified for the Cortina d’Ampezzo Games four years later, but had to return home the day before he was due to compete following his mother’s death. Weiler was a trained plumber but later owned a pub at the Heini-Klopfer-Skiflugschanze (Flying Hill) until his death due to cancer in 1997. He was awarded the Silver Bay Leaf in 1952 by then German president Theodor Heuss.