TS Dornbirn
Swimming Club TS Dornbirn has a long story of 75 years. The beginnings of swimming sport in Dornbirn dates back to 1933. Dipl. Ing. Hans Irral was the founder of the swimming department in gymnastics club Dornbirn which became a private swimming club shortly thereafter.
Since 1933 the swimming club Vorarlberg existed together with the home club Bregenz and the branch-associations Bludenz, Dornbirn and Lustenau. At that time Dornbirn members played only a minor role on the competition level. In 1933 and 1934 Austrian Championship for the teams without indoor pool in SSVV was held, but none of Dornbirn swimmers took part in it. However, the interest of Dornbirn population to swimming at that time was very strong, which can be proved by the quantity of club members (150-200).
The mass work and association activity were mostly concentrated on giving swimming lessons for children and adolescents, training for competitive swimmers and water polo players.
Training was initially held in the swimming pool of the F.M. Hämmerle company in Oberndorf. The F.M. Hämmerle company built the first public swimming pool in Dornbirn. In 1901 K.K. secondary School in Dornbirn for the first time arranged a swimming competition for its students. In 1939 training was held in Waldbad Enz which was the former public bath.
After the annexation of Austria into the German Reich in 1938, the Vorarlberg swimming clubs were incorporated to the German Reich Federation for Physical Education.
From 1952 to 1954 the Dornbirn swimming club was temporarily closed. Swimming club was originated again by Friedl Rosenbogen and Prof. Fritz Pfister, who was the head of the Dornbirn Gymnastics department since 1960. As department heads worked Prof. Fritz Pfister, Dipl.Ing. Rudolf Ölz, Kommerzialrat Gernot Maeser, Dipl.Ing. Heinz Perle, Luis Glatzl, Erich Neunhäuserer, Dr. Michael Jonas, Bernhard Brunold and Jürgen Monschein.
Since 1960 the Dornbirn swimmers could be included to the Vorarlberg State Swimming Association (Youth Championship, General Regional Championship, Water Polo and national championship of springboard diving) and establish their overall ranking for themselves.
With the opening of the first Vorarlberg indoor swimming pool in Dornbirn in 1969 the development of swimming sport in Dornbirn continues in a very fast way. Dornbirn swimmers dominate in Vorarlberg and can successfully compete on the national and international level (especially at the IABS Lake Constance championship).
The success story of TS Dornbirn swimming club in its recent past is connected with several outstanding names: Elmar Fink Angelika Fussenegger (Austrian Champion in children class), Angelika and Gertrud Willam, Heike Seewald, Adelgunde Prirsch, Susanne Preg (got several medals at the Austrian annual championships), Christine Spiegel (multiple medalist at Austrian junior championships, took 3rd place in the 400m freestyle at the Austrian Indoor Championships in the general class).