Christian Eminger (born October 21, 1964 in Baden, Switzerland) is a former ice speed skater from Austria. He represented Austria in three Winter Olympics, starting in 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
Baden, sometimes unofficially, to distinguish it from other Badens, called Baden bei Zürich or Baden im Aargau, is a municipality in Switzerland. It is the seat of the district of Baden in the canton of Aargau. Located 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Zürich in the Limmat Valley mainly on the western side of the Limmat, its mineral hot springs have been famed since at least the Roman era. Its official language is German, but the main spoken language is the local Alemannic Swiss German dialect. Its population in 2010 was over 18,000.
Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The ISU, the governing body of both ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".
Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a land-locked country in Central Europe composed of nine federated states (Bundesländer), one of which is Vienna, Austria's capital and its largest city. Austria occupies an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi) and has a population of nearly 9 million people. It is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. While German is the country's official language, many Austrians communicate informally in a variety of Bavarian dialects.
After his skating career, Eminger remained a competitive road bicycle rider. He is winner of the 2007 annual amateur ranking in Switzerland and two-times winner of the UCI Masters World Championship.
The term road bicycle is used to describe bicycles built for traveling at speed on paved roads. Some sources use the term to mean racing bicycle. Other sources specifically exclude racing bicycles from the definition, using the term to mean a bicycle of a similar style but built more for endurance and less the fast bursts of speed desired in a racing bicycle; as such, they usually have more gear combinations and fewer hi-tech racing features. Certain of these bicycles have been referred to as 'sportive' bicycles to distinguish them from racing bicycles.
The UCI world championships are annual competitions promoted by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to determine world champion cyclists. They are held in several different styles of racing, in a different country each year. Championship winners wear a white jersey with coloured bands around the chest for the following year. The similarity to the colours of a rainbow gives them the colloquial name of "the rainbow jersey." The first three individuals or teams in each championship win gold, silver and bronze medals. Former world champions are allowed to wear a trim to their collar and sleeves in the same pattern as the rainbow jersey.
