His technique, with his arms stretched back and close to his body, was developed in the 1950s.

It became a standard practice in the sport until the mid 1980s when Swedish jumper Jan Boklöv popularised the 'V' technique.

Although he never won an Olympic medal, Swiss radiostation SRF described Däscher as a ski jump "revolutionary", however not everyone was initially prepared to accept his ideas.

Judges often marked him down for using the style and the Swiss Ski Association threatened to expel him from the national team if he did not abandon it.

"He was just as fearless in the fight with the ski association as he was on the hill and revolutionised his sport and thus secured an entry in the historical dictionary of Switzerland," the Swiss Tagesanzeiger said in its tribute.

Däscher worked closely with Swiss aircraft engineer Reinhard Straumann who helped him demonstrate that his technique was superior by using a wind tunnel at Emmenbrücke.

In 1958, the International Ski Federation accepted the pair's findings and altered their regulations accordingly.

Däscher had been born in Clavadel, Davos, but his opportunities for international competition were initially limited by the Second World War.

He became an apprentice plumber and heating engineer and eventually started his own company in Meilen.

He was 20 years of age by the time he competed in the first of four Winter Olympics at St Moritz in 1948.

It was two years later in March 1950 that he achieved his greatest feat, when he set a world distance record of 130 metres at Oberstdorf in West Germany.

At the 1956 Winter Olympics, he finished sixth on the large hill, his best placing at the Olympics.

It was also the period when he won nine Swiss national ski jumping titles.

At his fourth and final Olympic Games in 1960 at Squaw Valley, he was chosen as the Swiss flagbearer.

His brother Hans had also been a ski jumper who competed in the Oslo 1952 Winter Olympics.

Andreas Däscher was married for 72 years but in 2019 both his wife and his son died.

He spent the final years of his life at the Platten retirement home in Meilen where he died aged 96.