Biathlon history of Antholz

Paul Zingerle was born in 1945 as youngest child of the extended family of the Siebenter-Farm in Antholz-Niedertal. His mother was a teacher and taught at the elementary school in Antholz-Niedertal, his father managed a big farm belonging to the Kuchlmair-Farms of Antholz and was also major in his native municipality for a longer time. After taking his school-leaving exam Paul Zingerle began to teach at the secondary school in Mühlbach near Brixen. Already at the beginning of the 70s Paul Zingerle together with one of his brothers began to build the Wildgall Hotel and a holiday village with eight bungalows in Antholz-Obertal. After hearing by chance about the training camp of the Italian national team in Sterzing, Paul Zingerle "discovered" the biathlon sport. As he was an open-minded type he realized the potential of the biathlon sport and succeeded in pursuing the coach of the national team, Mismetti Battista, to come for a stay to Antholz. Paul Zingerle convinced the coach of the advantages of the valley. Already in 1971 the first international biathlon competition, conducted and organized by Paul Zingerle, took place in the Valley of Antholz. At that time the 20 km competition was the only race of this international event, only in 1973/74 the 10 km sprint competition became part of the programme. In 1975 the Valley of Antholz was awarded for the first time to organize the Biathlon World Championships and got appreciation from the whole sports world, although biathlon at that time was regarded as a fringe sport. The go-getting and forceful businessman was very involved in the local events, above all the upcoming tourism branch. Besides that, he was member of the local council and got elected president of the sports club of Antholz, founded in 1968. Furthermore, he looked after the interests of many public institutions and offices. In the mid - 70ies Paul Zingerle, who had a pronounced tendency towards pragmatic solutions, introduced the Biathlon World Cup together with Kurt Hinze - the "biathlon-pope" of ex-East Germany. The two friends worked some rules out, bought a cup weighing 25 kg, they put this cup in the shop window of the Seeber's bakery in Antholz (the only shop window in town at that time) and awarded it unofficially as World Cup in occasion of the yearly "International Biathlon Week". The next year the World Cup was introduced and awarded officially. After the introduction of the biathlon friendlier small-bore rifles, in the winter season 1977/78, biathlon sport began to rise unstoppable to one of the most exiting combination sports to be extremely suitable for TV broadcasting. In occasion of the World Championships 1983 in Antholz Paul Zingerle together with his untiring team reached a big aim: a functional building has been constructed in the stadium of Antholz-Obertal. From this time onwards it has been used as a basic structure for sports activities and tourism . Already at the beginning of the 80ies Paul Zingerle privately got into financial troubles and could not avert to alienate the hotel as well as his real estate. In November 1984 he handed over his office to Franz Rieder who then became president of the organizing and executive Biathlon Committee of Antholz until 1997. As a member of the Executive Committee of the IBU Paul Zingerle was still looking after the development of the biathlon sport. In summer 1993, during his stay in Moscow with his sport friends, he has died of cardiac arrest. After completion of bureaucratic hurdles Paul Zingerle was buried in the cemetery of Antholz-Niedertal. Nowadays Antholz is mentioned together with Ruhpolding, Oberhof, Lahti and Lillehammer in connection with the fascinating biathlon sport, a world-class sport centre exists in the Valley of Antholz and young athletes from Antholz have become idols of the sporty youth and carried beyond the name of the valley - all this is thanks to the great contribution of a far-sighted fellow citizen who pursued a vision with much personal commitment and dedication, a vision that became reality.