Georg Thoma

Georg Thoma, the uncle of Dieter Thoma, won the Nordic Combined gold medal at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics 1960, the first non-Scandavian to win the event, and he added a bronze medal four years later at Innsbruck where he was the German team flagbearer at the opening ceremony. In 1964, he was also given the Holmenkollen Medal, and he won the 1966 World Championship in Nordic combined. Thoma was German ski jumping champion in 1960, 1961 and 1963 and was chosen German Sportsman of the Year in 1960. After his sports career ended, he became a postman in his hometown at Hinterzarten, but he quit this job in favor of becoming a television commentator. Thoma was one of the first winter sportsmen in Germany to make his living from sponsorship.