The Funniest Names in Winter Sports
Some of them sound like characters from Viz, whilst others would make even a vicar smirk, so check out the latest additions to our list of the funniest names in winter sports.... (and if you know of any others then please contact us).
Ski Racing
Pablo Ace
Spanish skier from the mid 2000's who wasn't quite as good on the FIS world cup circuit as his name suggested.
Anika Angriman
Young Italian skier, sister of fellow Italian Niccolo Angriman. Also related to Mario Fuming. Probably.
Saioa Aragon Arce
Sounding more like the name of a character that got slightly lost in translation during the
Spanish-language version of the Lord of the Rings, rather than a Spanish slalom specialist from the late 1990s.
Hayley Armbruster
There's been a surprisingly large amount of Armbrusters in the world of ski-racing, and American Hayley is the
cream of the Armbruster crop. We were originally told she was called Armbuster, which to be fair sounds even better.
Theodore Badger
Sounding more like a character from a Beatrix Potter story, rather than a participant from one of
world's most exciting sports, American Theodore Badger raced in a number of FIS slalom events in the early 2000's.
Paula Basic
Croatian Alpine skier who liked to keep things nice and simple out on the slopes.
Herve Bastard
Or "Mr Bastard" to you. Forget "Herge's Adventures of Tintin", what the boys and girls at SnowKings want to read about is
"Herve's Adventures of Ski Racing", all about the capers of a French Alpine skiing Bastard in the 90's.
Thomas Burgler
Swiss skier whose late charge stole (see what we've done there ?) a couple of Giant Slalom victories in the 1984-85 World Cup season.
And yes, before we get slated, we do know that it's not really how you spell it.
Tim Cafe
Tea loving skier from New Zealand who competed in the Super G at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Fanny Chmelar
Until someone tells us otherwise, we believe that you pronounce Fanny's surname as Shmeller,
which is just comedy gold as far as we're concerned. She's a slalom specialist from the German resort of
Garmisch-Partenkirchen for those of you that are interested. And at over 6 foot tall she's one of the tallest Fanny Shmeller's
we've ever come across.
Old Fanny has achieved now achieved global fame thanks to her legendary appearance with
Bradley Walsh on The Chase
on ITV.
Simona Fartakova
Skier from the Czech Republic who's had a few stinking runs in her time.
Fillipo Fati
Everyone loves a skiing Fati. And Italian Fillipo is our favourite Fati of all time.
Ernst Good
The Swiss skier lived up to his name at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, when he
just pipped the legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark to snatch silver in
the Giant Slalom. And if he'd just found another two-tenths of
a second and beaten fellow countryman Heini Hemmi he would have been nicknamed Very. Probably.
Lara Gut
Great name. Great skier. The Swiss racer claimed silver in both the women's Downhill
and the Super Combined at the 2009 World Championships in Val d'Isere and would have been
amongst the favourites for gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics but unfortunately missed out due
to a hip injury. But Lara's obviously got the stomach for a fight, and came back well afterwards
to claim more success on the World Cup ski circuit.
Kelly McBroom
Flying Canadian World Cup skier who missed the 2009-10 season due to an horrific knee injury but fought back well afterwards.
Herbert Plank
The Italian proved that he was anything but, when he grabbed the bronze medal in the downhill at the 1976 Innsbruck
Winter Olympics behind skiing legends of that era, Franz Klammer and Bernhard Russi.
Satohiro Shitada
The Japanese skier had a few FIS giant slalom races in the 2004-05 season in Sapporo.
Picabo Street
Fantastically-named American legend who won numerous Olympic and World Championship medals
(including two golds) during the 1990s before having to retire through injury.
Born in the aptly-named village of Triumph, in Idaho, she famously appeared on
American kids TV show Sesame Street, when Elmo came across her whilst looking for
Peekaboo Street.
Guenther Stuffer
Fast-eating Italian skier who raced at a few FIS meetings in the late 90s.
Willy Tinkler
Full name William, he was known to his mates as Willy. Well, probably.
The Welsh skier competed in a couple of FIS slalom races in 2009.
Alexander Wanke
Well, what more can we say about this Italian skier who competed in several national races in 2003-2005,
apart from "what a top name" ?
Olivia Wonkavaara
The Swedish skier competes with
Simona Fartakova
in our minds for the top-named skier ending in "a".
Ski Jumping
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Sven Eriksson | No, not that one ! Ok, so for all we know it might be the Swedish equivalent of John Brown, but it's still great to learn of a jumper with the same name as the great Swedish Lothario who managed the English national football team. This particular Sven actually won silver at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. |
| Harry Glass | The bronze medallist from the Ski Jumping event at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympics competes with Henry Glass (bizarrely, not related) for the title of most un-German name ever. |
| Henry Glass | The bronze medallist from the Ski Jumping event at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics competes with Harry Glass (bizarrely, not related) for the title of most un-German name ever. |
| Roger Ruud | He might sound like a character straight out of the pages of Viz but the Norwegian jumper was good enough to finish 6th on the large hill in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. |
| Andreas Wank | Nicknamed "Wanki" (seriously, check out wikipedia ) and why not ! The German won the World Junior Championship in Zakopane in 2008. Top jumper. Top name. |
Extreme Skiing
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Kenton Cool | Quality named British mountaineer and extreme skier. |
Skeleton
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Jeff Pain | An appropriate name for a man hurtling down a tube of ice, head-first, on a metal tray. |
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