A victory lap for our best

Liu Jia, Andreas Goldberger, LASK, Sigrid Kirchmann or Helmut Köglberger – whoever wins here is part of the “Hall of Fame” of Upper Austrian sport: Today the OÖN, together with Sportland OÖ and ORF, are starting the 49th time Voted Upper Austria’s Athlete of the Year. The long tradition of the freestyle, which was first held in 1975, is evidence of its importance.

It is a beloved and cherished tradition – also because the athlete election not only offers our winners and figureheads a deserved lap of honor. It also provides a platform for those who achieve great things but sometimes don’t always get the spotlight they deserve. And at the end there is the award ceremony in November, an event that deserving greats like to describe as the “class reunion of Upper Austrian sport”.

The selection is large

The shortlists, each consisting of 20 people, are once again full of big names. The number of candidates for election victory is large. In the women’s race, defending champion Sofia Polcanova, who was hampered by injuries this year, will have a difficult time. There is also extremely strong – pardon: extremely nimble – competition from mountain running world champion Andrea Mayr and World Cup semi-finalist Susanne Gogl-Walli.

In the men’s category last year, Vincent Kriechmayr narrowly prevailed. The Gramastettner ski ace fulfilled a lifelong dream with victory in Kitzbühel and thus made a recommendation for the election. Judoka Shamil Borchashvili, who celebrated a much-celebrated home win in Linz this year, or swimming ace Simon Bucher, who is considered a hot medal candidate for the Summer Games in Paris, will be hot on Kriechmayr’s heels.

Among the teams, the outstanding volleyball players from the Steelvolleys Linz-Steg recently celebrated twice in a row. If LASK or the Black Wings can tap into their enormous fan potential, they will be difficult to beat. Not to forget the euphoria surrounding the handball players at HC Linz.

This is how the election works

You can only vote on nachrichten.at/sportlerwahl become. You can vote three times a day per device. The election runs from today until October 20th (midnight). The ten best performers in each category then advance to the final, in which a jury of experts – consisting of representatives from the sports country, the umbrella and professional associations and the OÖN as well as former greats such as Hannes Trinkl, Theresia Kiesl and Andreas Goldberger – vote on the ranking. The result of the fan vote is included in the final result. The winners will be honored on November 2nd in Linz.