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Hannelore (Hanni) Wenzel is a retired Liechtensteiner alpine ski racer. Wenzel is a former Olympic, World Cup, and world champion. She won Liechtenstein's first-ever Olympic medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and its first two Olympic gold medals four years later in Lake Placid, New York.
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.
Janica Kostelić is a Croatian former alpine ski racer. She is a four-time Olympic gold medalist. In addition to the Olympics, she won five gold medals at the World Championships. In World Cup competition, she won thirty individual races, three overall titles, three slalom titles, and four combined titles. Kostelic's accomplishments in professional skiing have led some commentators, writers, and fellow ski racers to regard her as the greatest female ski racer of all time.
Kenneth John Read is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Canada. He was a specialist in the downhill and a two-time Olympian. He won five World Cup races during his ten-year international career, all in downhill.
Ivica Kostelić is a Croatian former alpine ski racer. He specialized in slalom and combined, but was also one of the few alpine World Cup ski racers able to score points in all disciplines. He is the brother of skiing champion Janica Kostelić. In his career he was coached by his father Ante Kostelić, as well as by Kristian Ghedina and Tomislav Krstičević.
The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships is an alpine skiing competition organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS).
Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. The event format has changed within the last 30 years. A traditional combined competition is a two-day event consisting of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom; each discipline takes place on a separate day. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. Until the 1990s, a complicated point system was used to determine placings in the combined event. Since then, a modified version, called either a "super combined" or an "Alpine combined", has been run as an aggregate time event consisting of two runs: first, a one-run speed event and then only one run of slalom, with both portions held on the same day.
Atle Skårdal is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer in the speed events of Downhill and Super-G. Since 2012, he is FIS racing director for women races, as successor of Kurt Hoch. A two-time world champion in the Super-G in 1996 and 1997, he was also the World Cup champion in Super-G in 1996. Skårdal competed at the 1988 and 1994 Winter Olympics, with a 6th place in the 1994 Super G his best finish.
Bernhard Russi is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. Born in Andermatt in the canton of Uri, he is an Olympic, World Cup, and World champion in the downhill event.
Steven Lee is an Australian alpine skier. He competed in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, and had a competitive career lasting just on 25 years. He is the second of only 3 Australian skiers ever to claim victory on the Alpine World Cup circuit. He has also done sports commentating for channels 7, 9 and 10, co-owns Chill Factor magazine, and is a national selector and president of Falls Creek Race Club. He has worked in movies with Roger Moore and Jackie Chan.
Maria Höfl-Riesch is a former German alpine ski racer. She is a three-time Olympic champion, two-time World champion, an overall World Cup champion and five-time World junior champion.
Šárka Strachová is a retired Czech World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Benecko, she specializes in the slalom event. Strachová is the first alpine racer representing the Czech Republic to medal at the Winter Olympics and at the World Championships and just the second Czech alpine skier ever to medal in the Olympics.
Sport in Croatia has significant role in Croatian culture, and many local sports clubs as well as the Croatian national squads enjoy strong followings in the country. The most enduring sport by far in Croatia is football, and is played on amateur and professional levels amongst all age groups across the entire country. Several other major team sports are handball, basketball and water polo, with clubs in all parts of Croatia. Ice hockey is another popular team sport, namely in the Croatian interior. The most popular individual sports in Croatia are tennis, alpine skiing, and swimming, and to some extent table tennis and chess. Various amateur sport games are popular in Croatia, notably picigin.
Thomas Fanara is a former French World Cup alpine ski racer.
Felix Neureuther is a German retired World Cup alpine ski racer and former World champion.
Susanne Riesch is a former alpine ski racer. She is the sister of Maria Höfl-Riesch, overall World Cup Champion for season 2010/2011. She is also the niece of Wolfgang Zimmerer who was a bobsledder during the 1960s and 1970s and who with Peter Utzschneider, won gold for West Germany at the Two-man bobsleigh during the 1972 Winter Olympics.
Giuliano Razzoli is a World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Italy. He specializes in the slalom; he won the Slalom at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Sebastian Foss-Solevåg is a Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer and specializes in slalom. He is world champion, Olympic bronze medalist and three times national champion in slalom.
Ante Kostelić is a Croatian former handball player, and handball and skier coach. He is best known for coaching his children, Croatian skiers Janica and Ivica Kostelić, who won the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, overall FIS Alpine World Cup and Olympic titles between 2001 and 2014. As head coach of the ŽRK Osijek handball club he won the 1981–82 IHF Women's Cup Winners' Cup. He has been honoured with numerous awards including the Croatian Olympic Committee's Matija Ljubek Award (2001), Franjo Bučar State Award for Sport (2003) and the Order of Duke Branimir.
Alex Vinatzer is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer. He specializes in slalom and has competed in two Winter Olympics, and three World Championships.
