Trude Beiser (after her marriage Trude Jochum-Beiser; born 2 September 1927) is a former alpine ski racer from

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Born in

Lech am Arlberg Lech am Arlberg ( Alemannic: ''Lääch'') is a mountain village and an exclusive ski resort in the Bludenz district in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg, on the banks of the river Lech. In terms of both geography and history, Lech ...

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...

, she won two Olympic gold medals and a world championship. Beiser was the first female Austrian skier to win two Olympic gold medals at two Olympic Winter Games.

Competitive Career

Beiser's racing career consisted of five total competitions, two in the 1950 FIS World Ski Championships and three in the Winter Olympics of 1948 and 1952 (which also counted as FIS competitions, thus, her scoreboard holds eight total competitions). In the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (; ; ; ) and commonly known as St. Moritz 1948 (; ), were a winter multi-sport event held from 30 January to 8 February 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Games were the ...

, Beiser won the gold medal for the combined and the silver medal for the downhill competitions. She then won two medals at the 1950 World Championships in

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population ...

: a gold in downhill and a silver in the

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in Slalom skiing, slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant sl ...

. In

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

, she won the gold medal in downhill racing, securing the rank of champion for a second time.

Biography

Beiser married Alfred Jochum after the 1948 Olympics. Four months earlier (in regard to the World Championships), she had given birth to her first child. Once she competed in the 1952 Olympics, her country named her the Austrian sportswoman of the year. After her racing career, Beiser worked as skiing trainer and opened a café (named "Café Olympia") in her home town.

Honors and Accomplishments

In 1996, The Republic of Austria awarded Beiser with a Medal of Merit in Gold. 4 years later, she became an Honorary Freewoman of the community of Lech and an Honorary Member of the Arlberg Ski Club.

References

External links

* * * * 1927 births Living people Austrian female alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers for Austria Olympic gold medalists for Austria Alpine skiers at the 1948 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1952 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in alpine skiing Medalists at the 1948 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1952 Winter Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Austria Skiers from Vorarlberg 20th-century Austrian sportswomen 21st-century Austrian women {{Austria-alpine-skiing-bio-stub