Huge pressure before the 1988 Olympics Zurbriggen was "The Wonder Boy from the Matterhorn"

Pirmin Zurbriggen was expected to win no fewer than five gold medals in Calgary in 1988. In the end, it was only one - but a particularly beautiful one.

He was "The Wonder Boy from the Matterhorn", the prodigy from the Matterhorn, to whom success seemed to come naturally - revered in Switzerland and around the world. Also in Canada and especially in Calgary, where Pirmin Zurbriggen reached for Olympic gold at the peak of his ability in 1988. No fewer than five gold medals were sometimes expected, in all disciplines. In the end, Zurbriggen won at least two World Cup races in all disciplines - from downhill to slalom. Apart from him, only Marc Girardelli, Bode Miller and Kjetil Andre Aamodt have managed this to date. And he has already been two-time overall World Cup winner and four-time World Champion.

The pressure, the expectations, the premature praise - "it was all difficult to cope with," Zurbriggen recalls in the Olympic talk "Legends for eternity". "Everyone can say what they want. But headlines like that leave a mark - in your head and in your subconscious."

He had prepared meticulously for Calgary. He was there a year before the Games, got to know the slope, the people and the climate. "I really liked everything." And he even learned English for the Games. "Just a few words," says Zurbriggen and laughs out loud. "But that was a disaster..."

The unsuccessful combination

The combination was also a disaster. Zurbriggen started as the reigning world champion and led until the second run of the slalom - and with a big lead. "But then I risked too much - and I crashed out." Was he too arrogant? Did he feel too good because of the advance praise? Did he want to put on a show for the fans and go the extra mile? Zurbriggen laughs and says: "Somewhere in the back of my mind, that probably played a role. Anyway, my service man just said to me: You couldn't have done anything more stupid."

Then came the downhill, Zurbriggen's favorite discipline. "I was born to ski downhill." Peter Müller, one of his biggest rivals, started with the number one - and stayed in the lead until Zurbriggen thundered off with bib number 14. "I knew that Pitsch (Müller, ed.) had set one." Müller's time impressed everyone, including him. "That made me feel insecure at the start," Zurbriggen admits 38 years later.

It was only when Austrian Leo Stock finished in third place that Zurbriggen took courage. "He was also skiing on Kästle skis, so I knew they were fast that day."

The relationship with "Pitsch" Müller

And so it was. Zurbriggen beat Müller's best time. "I knew that I had made a mistake in the middle section, which cost me time." At the finish, however, he saw that his time was under two minutes and that he must have won the race. Zurbriggen immediately took off his skis and presented them to the audience. "The ski ran very well - I had a lot to thank him for that day."

Zurbriggen won, Peter Müller came second. And what about the relationship between the two, which was a constant topic in the media and among fans at the time? "Pitsch had two faces, me too. We each had our own way of preparing and pushing for a race. He just liked to get in trouble. He needed that."

However, Müller soon realized that Zurbriggen's type of challenge was no good. "And otherwise we didn't have any problems, we actually got on well together."

Odi's tears after 2nd place in KitzbühelThis is how Pirmin Zurbriggen tried to comfort Odermatt's father at the finish line

The whole talk with Pirmin Zurbriggen in the video