Success is sexy. Heini Hemmi, the 1976 Olympic champion, also found this out. Here he reveals that he also received immoral offers, how he met his wife Susi and the recipe for their long love affair.
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- After the Olympic victory in Innsbruck, Heini Hemmi became the nation's biggest fan favorite virtually overnight. In the first week alone, he had more than 5,000 fan letters at home.
- "Some just wanted an autograph card, others wrote long stories and there were other offers too," says Hemmi with a smile.
- Many of the letters were answered by his wife Susi. "It was amusing for her too," says Hemmi. The two have been married for over 50 years. How did they meet? A special story.
At some point, Heini Hemmi certainly stopped counting. In the first week alone after his gold medal run at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics, more than 5,000 fan letters piled up at his home. "I signed everything I could. For nights on end," recalls the now 77-year-old Hemmi in the talk "Legends for eternity" on blue.
Autograph requests, cuddly toys, children's drawings - everything was there. "Some just wanted an autograph card, others wrote long stories and there were other offers too," says Hemmi with a grin. Immoral offers? "Yes, there were also other expressions of love of all kinds. There were just a lot of fans." He still remembers one such offer in particular. "One lady wrote to me to say that she was newly divorced and unhappy, that she had two children and wanted to marry me."
Hemmi, who had been married to his Susi for more than 50 years, politely declined. Incidentally, it was usually his wife herself who answered the fan mail for him. "But it was amusing for her too. I can't remember what she sometimes wrote back," says the skiing legend and laughs.
The first dance with Susi
The story of how he met his wife Susi is rather unusual. Hemmi was actually traveling with another lady. "We hadn't been together long," says Hemmi mischievously. "And then we went to a friend's house after a race and put on a few records." His companion eventually fell asleep on the couch, but Hemmi was clearly still bursting with energy. "Then I asked Susi to dance... and yes, it got late."
His wife later also took part in World Cup races. Back then, wives were allowed to spend the night in their husbands' rooms, but girlfriends were not. In between, she sewed the start number onto her sweetheart's race dress before the race. "It was said that you could gain a few hundredths if the number didn't flutter," says Hemmi.
And: What is the secret of the Hemmis' decades-long marriage? Heini says: "Respect for each other. And love. I still wouldn't give her up..."
