| Marc Girardelli | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Marc Girardelli in April 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 18 July 1963 Lustenau, Austria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seasons | 1980 – 1996 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indiv. podiums | 101 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indiv. wins | 46 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Overall titles | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline titles | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Marc Girardelli (born 18 July 1963) is an Austrian–Luxembourgish former alpine ski racer, a five-time World Cup overall champion who excelled in all five alpine disciplines.
Born in Lustenau, Austria into a family originally from Valsugana, Italy, Girardelli started skiing at the age of five and was racing at seven. He enjoyed significant success at junior level, winning local competitions in not only alpine skiing but also ski jumping. He competed for Austria until 1976, then switched to Luxembourg due to disagreements about coaching – the Austrian skiing federation wanted Girardelli to attend a ski boarding school in Schruns, thirty miles (50 km) from Lustenau, while his parents preferred for him to stay in his hometown. [1] In 1981, he started to make significant progress with his first podium (top-three finish) in Wengen, Switzerland, and from that moment was in contention for slalom and giant slalom podiums on a regular basis. [2]
He achieved his first World Cup victory in Sweden in February 1983, but incurred his first major injury two weeks later, tearing all the ligaments, cartilage, and a tendon in his left knee in a crash during a downhill at Lake Louise. [1] In the following season, he won five slalom races and was third in the overall standings. [3]
In 1985, Girardelli won 11 races and the World Cup overall title, followed by another overall title in 1986 and a third in 1989. After another major accident in 1990, in which he narrowly avoided paraplegia, he recovered to win the overall again in 1991 and in 1993 for a record fifth time – a record until Marcel Hirscher won a sixth title in 2017 (Annemarie Moser-Pröll won six women's World Cups). In total, Girardelli won 46 World Cup races (fifth-most of all time among men) and recorded 100 podiums. [4]
Because Girardelli retained Austrian citizenship while skiing for Luxembourg, he was ineligible to compete in the 1980 or 1984 Winter Olympics - but also to compete in the 1982 World Championships. (In contrast, regulations did allow to start for Luxembourg in the World Cup). For a while, his appearance at the 1985 World Championships was in doubt, but he was able to show evidence that he was in the process of claiming Luxembourg citizenship. The FIS gave special permission, and he won a silver medal in the slalom and bronze in the giant slalom. Girardelli received Luxembourg citizenship in time to compete in the 1987 World Championships. His first Olympics were in 1988 at Calgary, but he did not win a medal. In 1992 at Albertville, he won silver medals in super-G and giant slalom – the first medals for the Grand Duchy at the Winter Olympics, and Luxembourg's first Olympic medal since Josy Barthel's gold in the 1500 metres in 1952.
Girardelli won eleven World Championship medals, including four golds: (slalom at Saalbach in 1991 and combined at Crans-Montana in 1987, Vail in 1989, and Sierra Nevada in 1996).
His final World Cup race was in the downhill race at Val Gardena on 20 December 1996; he had announced his intention to start the next day in another downhill, but suffered a new knee injury. After failing to start in the following races, he announced his retirement from international competition in January 1997 at age 33.
Girardelli is an honorary citizen of Bulgarian ski resort Bansko. Since 2015, he has been serving as an advisor to the Minister of Tourism of Bulgaria, Nikolina Angelkova, on the matters of winter tourism. [5] On 17 December 2018 Girardelli disclosed that he holds the majoritary share of Yulen AD, the controversial operator of the ski zone of Bansko. [6]
He is an organiser of skiing events in several European winter sports resorts, and also in Portillo, Chile. Since 2005 he is an IBO for kids fashion in sports, called »Marc Girardelli Skiwear«. [7]
| Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 16 | 84 | – | 32 | not run | – | – |
| 1981 | 17 | 26 | 15 | 23 | – | – | |
| 1982 | 18 | 6 | 8 | 3 | – | – | |
| 1983 | 19 | 4 | 7 | 6 | not awarded | – | 3 |
| 1984 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 4 | – | 34 | |
| 1985 | 21 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19 | — | |
| 1986 | 22 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 1987 | 23 | 2 | 28 | 5 | 2 | 10 | — |
| 1988 | 24 | 5 | 23 | 13 | 4 | 7 | — |
| 1989 | 25 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| 1990 | 26 | 25 | 15 | 12 | – | – | – |
| 1991 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 28 | 1^ |
| 1992 | 28 | 3 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 13 | 11 |
| 1993 | 29 | 1 | 13 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
| 1994 | 30 | 2 | 29 | 19 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 1995 | 31 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 10 | 24 | 1 |
| 1996 | 32 | 22 | 20 | 23 | 51 | 47 | 2 |
| 1997 | 33 | 115 | 58 | 49 | – | – | – |
| Season | Discipline |
|---|---|
| 1984 | Slalom |
| 1985 | Overall |
| Slalom | |
| Giant slalom | |
| 1986 | Overall |
| 1989 | Overall |
| Downhill | |
| Combined | |
| 1991 | Overall |
| Slalom | |
| 1993 | Overall |
| Combined | |
| 1994 | Downhill |
| 1995 | Combined |
| Season | Date | Location | Race |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 27 February 1983 | Gällivare, Sweden | Slalom |
| 1984 | 16 January 1984 | Parpan, Switzerland | Slalom |
| 22 January 1984 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Slalom | |
| 15 February 1984 | Borovets, Bulgaria | Slalom | |
| 18 March 1984 | Åre, Sweden | Slalom | |
| 24 March 1984 | Oslo, Norway | Slalom | |
| 1985 | 2 December 1984 | Sestriere, Italy | Slalom |
| 11 December 1984 | Giant slalom | ||
| 17 December 1984 | Madonna di Campiglio, Italy | Super-G | |
| 4 January 1985 | Bad Wiessee, West Germany | Slalom | |
| 13 January 1985 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Slalom | |
| 21 January 1985 | Wengen, Switzerland | Slalom | |
| 27 January 1985 | Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany | Super-G | |
| 16 February 1985 | Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia 1 | Slalom | |
| 10 March 1985 | Aspen, USA | Giant slalom | |
| 20 March 1985 | Park City, USA | Slalom | |
| 23 March 1985 | Heavenly Valley, USA | Slalom | |
| 1986 | 15 December 1985 | Alta Badia, Italy | Combined |
| 5 February 1986 | Crans-Montana, Switzerland | Super-G | |
| 7 February 1986 | St. Anton, Austria | Combined | |
| 1987 | 1 March 1987 | Furano, Japan | Super-G |
| 15 March 1987 | Calgary, Canada | Super-G | |
| 22 March 1987 | Sarajevo, Yugoslavia2 | Giant slalom | |
| 1989 | 6 December 1988 | Sestriere, Italy | Slalom |
| 17 December 1988 | Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia1 | Slalom | |
| 13 January 1989 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | |
| 15 January 1989 | Combined | ||
| 17 January 1989 | Adelboden, Switzerland | Giant slalom | |
| 20 January 1989 | Wengen, Switzerland | Downhill | |
| 21 January 1989 | Downhill | ||
| 22 January 1989 | Combined | ||
| 26 February 1989 | Whistler, Canada | Super-G | |
| 1991 | 13 January 1991 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Slalom |
| Combined | |||
| 15 January 1991 | Adelboden, Switzerland | Giant slalom | |
| 1992 | 8 December 1991 | Val-d'Isère, France | Super-G |
| 1993 | 13 December 1992 | Alta Badia, Italy | Giant slalom |
| 20 December 1992 | Kranjska Gora, Slovenia | Giant slalom | |
| 10 January 1993 | Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany | Combined | |
| 12 January 1993 | St. Anton, Austria | Super-G | |
| 17 January 1993 | Combined | ||
| 24 January 1993 | Veysonnaz, Switzerland | Combined | |
| 1994 | 23 January 1994 | Wengen, Switzerland | Super-G |
| 1995 | 15 January 1995 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Combined |
| 22 January 1995 | Wengen, Switzerland | Combined | |
| 1996 | 21 January 1996 | Veysonnaz, Switzerland | Combined |
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 21 | 2 | 3 | not run | — | — |
| 1987 | 23 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| 1989 | 25 | 3 | 4 | 14 | — | 1 |
| 1991 | 27 | 1 | 5 | — | 9 | DNF |
| 1993 | 29 | 2 | 7 | cancelled | — | 3 |
| 1996 | 32 | DNS1 | DNF1 | 18 | 18 | 1 |
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 24 | — | 9 | DNF | 9 | — |
| 1992 | 28 | DSQ1 | 2 | 2 | DNF | DNF1 |
| 1994 | 30 | DSQ1 | DNF1 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang and the alpine ski team directors from France and the USA. It was soon backed by International Ski Federation president Marc Hodler during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966 at Portillo, Chile, and became an official FIS event in the spring of 1967 after the FIS Congress at Beirut, Lebanon.
Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event during the 1983 season and was added to the official schedule of the World Championships in 1987 and the Winter Olympics in 1988.
Hermann Maier is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the "Herminator", Maier ranks among the greatest alpine ski racers in history, with four overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, and three World Championship titles. His 54 World Cup race victories – 24 super-G, 15 downhills, 14 giant slaloms, and 1 combined – rank third on the men's all-time list behind Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories and Marcel Hirscher's 67 victories. Until 2023 he held the record for the most points in one season by a male alpine skier, with 2000 points from the 2000 season. From 2000–2013 he also held the title of most points in one season by any alpine skier, until Tina Maze scored 2414 points in the 2013 season.
Annemarie Moser-Pröll is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. Born in Kleinarl, Salzburg, she was the most successful female alpine ski racer during the 1970s, with an all-time women's record of six overall titles, including five consecutively. She had most success in downhill, giant slalom and combined races. In 1980, her last year as a competitor, she secured her third Olympic medal at Lake Placid and won five World Cup races. Her younger sister Cornelia Pröll is also a former alpine Olympian.
Alpine skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics consisted of six alpine skiing events, held 13–19 February in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. The men's races were at Bjelašnica and the women's at Jahorina. Due to weather delays, both downhill races were postponed several days and run after the giant slalom races.
The 40th World Cup season began in October 2005 and concluded at the World Cup finals in Åre, Sweden, in March 2006. The schedule included a nearly month-long break in February for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.
Benjamin Raich is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. With 14 medals won at Winter Olympics and World Championships, 36 World Cup race victories, one first place and five second places in the World Cup overall ranking, three victories of the slalom World Cup, three victories of the combined World Cup, two victories of the giant slalom World Cup and the highest score of career World Cup points, he is considered among the best alpine racers in World Cup history.
Theodore Sharp Ligety is a retired American alpine ski racer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and an entrepreneur, having cofounded Shred Optics. Ligety won the combined event at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and the giant slalom race at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. He is also a five-time World Cup champion in giant slalom. Ligety won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2011 World Championships. He successfully defended his world title in giant slalom in 2013 in Schladming, Austria, where he also won an unexpected gold medal in the super-G and a third gold medal in the super combined.
The 28th World Cup season began in late October 1993 in Sölden, Austria, and concluded in March 1994 at the World Cup finals at Vail in the United States. The overall champions were Kjetil André Aamodt of Norway and Vreni Schneider of Switzerland.
The 27th World Cup season began in November 1992 in Sestriere, Italy for men and Park City, Utah, USA for women, and concluded in March 1993 at the newly created World Cup Final in Åre, Sweden. A break in the schedule was for the 1993 World Championships, held in Morioka, Japan, from February 4–14.
The 25th World Cup season began in August 1990 in New Zealand, resumed in December, and concluded in March 1991 in the United States. The overall winners were Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg, his fourth title and Petra Kronberger of Austria. This was the first season following the reunification of Germany and the last before the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
The 23rd World Cup season began in November 1988 in Austria and concluded in March 1989 in Japan. The overall champions were Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg and Vreni Schneider of Switzerland. Schneider established the record for victories in a World Cup season, winning a total of 14 races, surpassing the record of 13 established in 1978-79 by the great Swedish skier and three-time overall World Cup champion Ingemar Stenmark.
The 18th World Cup season began in December 1983 in Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia, and concluded in March 1984 in Oslo, Norway. The overall champions were Pirmin Zurbriggen and Erika Hess, both of Switzerland.
Gustav Thöni is an Italian retired World Cup alpine ski racer.
Luxembourg competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 13–28 February 1988. It had been 52 years since the last time the nation had participated in the Winter Olympic Games, and Calgary was only their third appearance at a Winter Olympics in history. The Luxembourgian delegation consisted of a single alpine skier, the Austrian-born Marc Girardelli. His best performance was 9th in the downhill race, and Luxembourg did not win any medals at these Olympics.
Luxembourg sent a delegation to compete at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France from 8 to 23 February 1992. This marked Luxembourg's fourth appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The Luxembourgian delegation in Albertville consisted of a single athlete, alpine skier Marc Girardelli. He won two silver medals at these Olympics, which positioned Luxembourg 17th place on the medal table.
Luxembourg sent a delegation to compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway from 12–27 February 1994. The nation was making its fifth appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The Luxembourgian delegation to Lillehammer consisted of a single athlete, alpine skier Marc Girardelli. His best performance in any event was fourth in the Super-G; he also finished fifth in the downhill and ninth in the combined. As well, he failed to finish the giant slalom, and was disqualified from the slalom.
Günther Mader is a former alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist from Austria. Born in Matrei am Brenner, Tyrol, he is one of only five men to have won World Cup races in all five alpine disciplines.
The women's overall competition in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 38 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH), super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), and slalom (SL). The fifth and sixth disciplines, parallel (PAR). and Alpine combined (AC), had all events in the 2022–23 season cancelled, either due to the schedule disruption cased by the COVID-19 pandemic (AC) or due to bad weather (PAR). The original schedule called for 42 races, but in addition to the parallel, two downhills and a super-G were cancelled during the season.
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