Walter Steiner
Walter Steiner is a Swiss former ski jumper who competed in the 1970s.
Career
Steiner earned a ski jumping silver medal in the Individual large hill at the 1972 Winter Olympics. He also won the ski jumping competition at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 1974 and won the Ski Flying World Championships in 1972 and 1977. Steiner was awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1977. As of 2012 he resides in the Swedish rural town of Falun, working as a gardener.On 9 March 1973, he crashed at world record distance at 175 metres. Again two days later he crashed at record 179 metres, both of them achieved in Oberstdorf, West Germany.
On 15 March 1974 he set and tied ski jumping world record distance at 169 metres with Heinz Wossipiwo. Later that day he crashed at 177 metres world record distance; both distances were set on Velikanka bratov Gorišek K165 in Planica, Yugoslavia.
Steiner ended his career in 1978 after several knee injuries.
Although being very successful in ski flying, Steiner often criticized this kind of sport as insecure and even called flying hills "monuments of foolishness". He later worked as a design engineer to make ski jumping hills safer.
In present day he is known in Switzerland as the "bird man".