Previous Next

Farewell To A Skiing Legend: Erwin Stricker

THURSDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2010


The unexpected and sudden death of Erwin Stricker was announced the morning of Sept. 28. A skiing champion of his era and subsequently an ambassador of winter sports he recently was known to be suffering from a serious illness.

It was only a few weeks ago that Erwin Stricker had celebrated his 60th birthday and during a 2-week visit to China the first symptoms of his illness appeared which was to consequently take his life so quickly.

From 1969 to 1977, Erwin Stricker was a member of the Italian national alpine skiing team with which he went on to earn international fame and the nickname “Valanga Azzurra” (The Blue Avalanche). His aggressive style and daring invention quickly saw him bestowed with the moniker “cavallo pazzo“ (crazy horse) and the name Stricker rapidly become a household name.

After having left active competition behind, Erwin Stricker continued his association with winter sports through working with several manufacturers and producers of skiing equipment as well as becoming a mentor to new talent in the world of alpine skiing.

Innovative and visionary, he was able to achieve huge national success through the establishment of a ski-hire business and more recently with a new bicycle-hire venture. In recent years Stricker had put great effort into promoting skiing as a sport and leisure activity as far away as China and additionally had helped establish business links in Russia for Alto Adige winter sports enterprises.

It was during this period that Erwin Stricker had been engaged by Fiera Bolzano to assist in supporting the Alpitec China fair, as he had shown his foresight in the world of business through his invention of the concept that made Prowinter possible. “With the death of Erwin Stricker, the Alto Adige has lost a great and important man, an ambassador of winter sports of which he gave his all and held nothing back,” declared Gernot Rössler, President of Fiera Bolzano.

The Stricker family has announced that a memorial service will be held at 14.00 on Sunday, 3 October at Castello Pienzenau di Merano.

Source: Fruitecom for Fiera Bolzano

Previous Next