Austria’s Athletes of the Year were honoured at the ‘Lotterien Sporthilfe Gala’ at the Wiener Stadthalle on Wednesday evening. Among the men, ski jumper Daniel Tschofenig, winner of the Four Hills Tournament, won ahead of golfer Sepp Straka; among the women, alpine ski world champion Stephanie Venier triumphed over Sofia Polcanova (table tennis). The team of the year was the men’s ice hockey team, which reached the quarterfinals of the World Championship.
Among the more than 1,500 guests, Sports Media Austria President Michael Schuen was also able to welcome several guests from the AIPS family, most notably President Gianni Merlo.
AIPS Vice President Dr. Zsuzsa Csisztu also came to Vienna, along with members of the AIPS Europe Executive Committee: Vice President György Szöllösi (HUN), Treasurer Erodotos Miltiadous (CYP), Deputy Secretary General Nayden Todorov (BUL). Also in attendance were Sportspress.be Secretary Generall Rudy Nuyens (BEL), VDS President Andre Keil (GER) and DSNS Vice President Sinisa Urosevic (SLO).
As every year, Annemarie Moser-Pröll, 1980 Olympic downhill champion and eight-time overall winner of the Ski World Cup, also attended as a guest of Sports Media Austria. 289 members voted for the Athletes of the Year in just 53 hours – the gala was broadcast live on ORF, the Austrian national broadcaster. The ‘Niki’ trophy, named after Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda, was also awarded to three motorsport personalities from Austria: Dr. Helmut Marko, Toto Wolff, and Gerhard Berger. It was once again a wonderfully successful Gala. By Josef Langer