Heini Klopfer

Who was Heini Klopfer?

Heini Klopfer was a German ski jumper and architect from Oberstdorf.

at age 17, Klopfer was selected for trials for the 1936 Winter Olympics, but failed to qualify. After World War II Klopfer, Sepp Weiler and Toni Brutscher became known as the Oberstdorf Jumping Trio. He started working with construction of ski jumping hill. Kopfler has designed or been adviser for more than 250 hills. Main designs included all Olympic jumps used between 1960 and 1976, and he even designed one of the reconstructions of Holmenkollbakken in Oslo. He also was the ski jumping technical commissioner for the International Ski Federation. He died of a heart attack at the age of 50. In 1970, Heini-Klopfer-Skiflugschanze in Obserstdorf, one of the world's five ski flying hills, was named for him.