Hill record in Innsbruck
At the age of 81: ex-GDR tour winner died
Updated on October 1st, 2025 – 07:50 a.m.Reading time: 1 min.
At the 1969/70 tour, Horst Queck was only tenth in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Nevertheless, he won the tour – in a curious way.
The former ski jumper Horst Queck is dead. As the Thuringian Ski Association and its home club SC Motor Zella-Mehlis confirmed, the four-time GDR champion died on September 20 at the age of 81. The burial should take place in the closest family.
Queck wrote ski jumping history when he won the four-hill tour in the winter of 1969/70-without a single day’s victory. Thanks to strong placements in Oberstdorf (2nd), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (10th), Innsbruck (2nd) and Bischofshofen (4th), he secured the overall victory just before the Norwegian Björn Effola, who missed his fourth title in series.
In Innsbruck, Queck also set up a new ski jump record with a jump to 99.0 meters, which was only exceeded five years later.
In February 1970 he became a double GDR champion. Shortly afterwards he fell heavily at a ski flight competition in Oberstdorf. A year later he ended his active career and later worked as a selection coach of the GDR.