Werner Franz

Who is Werner Franz?

Werner Franz is a former Austrian alpine skier.

Franz was born in Weissbriach and he could already be found in the mountains at the age of 2, learning his first skiing techniques. He was coached by his father who was determined to make a professional skier out of his son. When Werner won an amateur race against young skiers of his own age he was complimented by his father who gave him newer and better skiing equipment as a present.

The good performances in his younger years gave him self-confidence, which resulted in his goals to achieve. To reach these goals he had to train and concentrate hard on his sports career and succeeded. Werner Franz developed himself as a skier specialising in the speed disciplines of downhill and Super G.

Franz joined the Austrian national World Cup team in 1990. In the 1991-92 season he won his first race in the European Cup, which immediately secured him the overall win in the downhill European Cup rankings. Unless the win he was not able to win any of the following races, but during the World Cup meeting in Val Gardena in the 1993-94 season he finished in second position. In the following year he repeated this achievement by finishing second at the race in Wengen. He also skied himself into several top 10 results.