In the 80s, they often stood next to each other on the podium: The Swiss Pirmin Zurbriggen (center) and Peter Müller, (right),. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Frenchman Franck Piccard completed the podium as bronze medal winner. (KEYSTONE/Thomas Studhalter)
Image: KEYSTONE
The biggest ski star of his time: Swiss ski racer Pirmin Zurbriggen, right, surrounded by young fans at an autograph session in Valais in 1987 (KEYSTONE/Str)
Image: KEYSTONE
Public viewing for a ski race: In Pirmin Zurbriggen's home village of Saas-Almagell in the canton of Valais, his fans celebrate in front of a television the first place and thus gold for Pirmin in the downhill at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, February 15, 1988 . (KEYSTONE/Str)
Image: KEYSTONE
The greatest triumph over his rival Zurbriggen: The Swiss men's national ski team experienced a triple triumph at the 1987 World Ski Championships in Crans-Montana. Peter Müller, center, wins the downhill ahead of Pirmin Zurbriggen, right, and Karl Alpiger, left. (KEYSTONE/STUDHALTER)
Image: KEYSTONE
Only downhill skiers wore ski helmets back then: Pirmin Zurbriggen takes first place in the giant slalom at the 1987 Alpine World Ski Championships in Crans Montana, pictured on February 4, 1987. This victory gives him his second gold medal in this competition. (KEYSTONE/Str)
Image: KEYSTONE
Iron Karl and his biggest star: Karl Frehsner, right, coach of the Swiss national ski team, gives Pirmin Zurbriggen, left, advice before the downhill race at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Zurbriggen goes on to win the gold medal. (KEYSTONE/Thomas Studhalter)
Image: KEYSTONE
The knee of the nation kept Switzerland on tenterhooks: Pirmin Zurbriggen in hospital in Muttenz (BL) after meniscus surgery in 1984 (KEYSTONE/Michael Kupferschmidt).
Image: KEYSTONE
For once, Peter Müller is not in Pirmin Zurbriggen's shadow: Honorary kick-off player Monika Kälin (center), skiing ace Peter Müller (left) and referee Ruedi Renggli (right) at the Swiss Ski Nation's fun game against a celebrity team as part of the Swiss Ski Festival, taken on April 23, 1983 in Buochs.
Image: KEYSTONE
In the 80s, they often stood next to each other on the podium: The Swiss Pirmin Zurbriggen (center) and Peter Müller, (right),. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Frenchman Franck Piccard completed the podium as bronze medal winner. (KEYSTONE/Thomas Studhalter)
Image: KEYSTONE
The biggest ski star of his time: Swiss ski racer Pirmin Zurbriggen, right, surrounded by young fans at an autograph session in Valais in 1987 (KEYSTONE/Str)
Image: KEYSTONE
Public viewing for a ski race: In Pirmin Zurbriggen's home village of Saas-Almagell in the canton of Valais, his fans celebrate in front of a television the first place and thus gold for Pirmin in the downhill at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, February 15, 1988 . (KEYSTONE/Str)
Image: KEYSTONE
The greatest triumph over his rival Zurbriggen: The Swiss men's national ski team experienced a triple triumph at the 1987 World Ski Championships in Crans-Montana. Peter Müller, center, wins the downhill ahead of Pirmin Zurbriggen, right, and Karl Alpiger, left. (KEYSTONE/STUDHALTER)
Image: KEYSTONE
Only downhill skiers wore ski helmets back then: Pirmin Zurbriggen takes first place in the giant slalom at the 1987 Alpine World Ski Championships in Crans Montana, pictured on February 4, 1987. This victory gives him his second gold medal in this competition. (KEYSTONE/Str)
Image: KEYSTONE
Iron Karl and his biggest star: Karl Frehsner, right, coach of the Swiss national ski team, gives Pirmin Zurbriggen, left, advice before the downhill race at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Zurbriggen goes on to win the gold medal. (KEYSTONE/Thomas Studhalter)
Image: KEYSTONE
The knee of the nation kept Switzerland on tenterhooks: Pirmin Zurbriggen in hospital in Muttenz (BL) after meniscus surgery in 1984 (KEYSTONE/Michael Kupferschmidt).
Image: KEYSTONE
For once, Peter Müller is not in Pirmin Zurbriggen's shadow: Honorary kick-off player Monika Kälin (center), skiing ace Peter Müller (left) and referee Ruedi Renggli (right) at the Swiss Ski Nation's fun game against a celebrity team as part of the Swiss Ski Festival, taken on April 23, 1983 in Buochs.
Image: KEYSTONE
Pirmin Zurbriggen and Peter Müller were never the best of friends. In an interview with blue Sport, Zurbriggen reveals how the spat was orchestrated internally and in which situation he made Müller really angry.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Pirmin Zurbriggen versus Peter Müller was an intense duel, and not just on the downhill courses.
- The two top Swiss skiers didn't get on particularly well off the piste either. In an interview with blue Sport, Zurbriggen clarifies: "It was deliberately staged internally."
- When the two share a room in Argentina, Zurbriggen is fed up with Müller's "mess" and throws his sneakers into the deep snow.
Pirmin Zurbriggen is one of the great Swiss skiing legends. The Valais native won everything there is to win and then retired at the age of 27 because he felt burnt out. One of his career companions was Swiss downhill competitor Peter "Pitsch" Müller. The two never got on well. In an interview with blue Sport as part of the 100-year anniversary of outfitter Kästle, Zurbriggen explains how he and Müller really came to blows back then and why he once threw Müller's sneakers from the fourth floor into the deep snow.
There is a collegial atmosphere in today's Swiss ski team. By all accounts, it was a little different in the past.
Pirmin Zurbriggen: It was still funny back then. When I was in the downhill team, you could really feel the competition. And we were best friends in the slalom and giant slalom team. We pushed each other, helped each other and tried to do everything together. Just like it is now with the Swiss.
And with the downhill skiers?
A different atmosphere was deliberately created there.
By the media?
No, that was an internal matter. Firstly, Pitsch (Peter Müller, editor) wanted a different world. He needed to push himself up. In general, the downhillers didn't get on so well. You have to imagine that I was the outsider.
What do you mean by that?
I was on the technical team. It started when Karl Frehsner told me that I only had to train downhill for two days, no more. I said to him: "Are you still okay?" and he just said, yes, yes, I'll be fine. Then he deliberately set a downhill run that he knew would suit me. Then Pirmin gave them two seconds on the roof and Frehsner sent me home again. Fortunately, my colleagues saw that it wasn't really what I wanted. But Frehsner provoked it.
Why did he do it?
He deliberately staged it that way to push the other riders, to give the whole thing another boost. That was his way. He wanted to get the downhillers to be prepared to take risks, to go full throttle. On the other hand, he put me in this unpleasant situation.
You and Peter Müller (24 World Cup victories, 19 of them in the downhill) were famously not the best of friends.
No.
There's this story about the sneakers during a training camp in Argentina.
Yes, that's true. We were in the room together and he always had an insane mess. So I told him that there was a line in the middle of the room and that anything on my side would fly out of the window. Then one day I came into the room and the sneakers were lying there. So I threw them from the third or fourth floor into the deep snow.
Müller wasn't impressed?
(laughs) He came up and asked where his sneakers were. And I told him that was the line and he just replied: "You stupid bastard" and went to dig out his sneakers.
That sounds like two colleagues getting annoyed and having a laugh.
No, it wasn't funny. It was quite interesting. The two of us never ate each other up. We also communicated normally. We also had our conversations, otherwise it wouldn't have worked with the shared room. It was never a feud or an "I don't want to know anything about you".
So your relationship wasn't that bad?
No, a lot of things were played up. Before Sölden, for example, it was said: You two are the biggest competitors for the winter in the downhill, we'll take a photo of you. Then "Pitsch" came and said: "I'm not taking a photo with you." So I said: "What have you eaten now, what's wrong with you?" He just wanted a photo back to back. He deliberately wanted to control it that way because it was important to him. "I'm here, I'm the champion, I'm looking for a challenge." Back at the hotel, everything was forgotten.
Were you sensitive?
Yes, I didn't need to be. I felt more comfortable in the technical team. If I hadn't had the giant slalom and slalom team, Pirmin wouldn't have been what he was.
What was it like in the technical team?
Let me give you an example. In one race, there were five of us Swiss in the top six. Back then, we radioed every detail of the track to each other. Watch out there, watch out here. We always had the philosophy that good things come back. I have the feeling that the current Swiss like Odermatt, Meillard, Caviezel, Tumler or Murisier are also very sensitive and they need that too. They also know that they can benefit brutally from each other. That's why they are so strong.
Odermatt, for example, also has a good relationship with international competitors like Sarrazin, with whom he parties together.
We didn't have that. We deliberately never got together. There was never any chance of that from the coach or the association. I didn't have time for things like that anyway. All I did was race, recover, train and move on. I never had that opportunity. A party after a win? Not a chance. That's why it's not surprising that I stopped at 27, I simply had no more energy.
