PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: skiing
American skier
Lindsey Vonn is an American Alpine skier who has won four women’s World Cup overall championships (2008–10 and 2012) and became, in 2019, the first woman to win 82 World Cup races. She also claimed three...
American skier
Bode Miller is an American Alpine skier who won six Olympic medals—more than any other male American skier—and won the men’s World Cup overall championship in 2005 and 2008. Miller was born in the heart...
Norwegian biathlete
Ole Einar Bjørndalen is a former biathlete whose 13 Olympic Games medals are the most for any male Winter Olympian. The Norwegian-born Bjørndalen is widely considered the greatest biathlete of all time....
Austrian skier
Benjamin Raich is an Austrian Alpine skier who won gold medals in both the slalom and the giant slalom (GS) at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Raich earned international acclaim at age 18 when...
Austrian skier
Hermann Maier is an Austrian skier who won two gold medals at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and one silver at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy. As a child Maier idolized the great World...
Swiss ski jumper
Simon Ammann is a Swiss ski jumper who won the individual normal hill and the individual large hill gold medals at both the 2002 and 2010 Olympic Winter Games, becoming the first man to sweep the individual...
Swedish skier
Anja Pärson is a Swedish skier who in 2007 became the first person to win world championship races in each of the five disciplines of Alpine ski racing. Pärson was coached by her father at the same ski...
Russian skier
Yelena Vyalbe is a Russian cross-country skier who excelled at every distance in international competition in the 1990s but failed to capture an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics. Vyalbe was...
Norwegian skier
Aksel Lund Svindal is a Norwegian Alpine skier who won two men’s Fédération International de Ski (FIS) World Cup overall championships (2007 and 2009), as well as an Olympic gold medal in both the supergiant...
Swiss skier
Carlo Janka is a Swiss Alpine skier whose clean, efficient style and poised determination helped establish him as one of the sport’s top all-around competitors in the early 21st century. Janka was born...
Finnish ski jumper
Matti Nykänen was a Finnish ski jumper who was arguably the finest performer in the history of his sport. He was not exceptionally fast down the ski ramp, and he had an unorthodox manner of jumping that...
Croatian skier
Janica Kostelić is a Croatian skier who, at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, became the first female skier to win four Olympic medals. Kostelić was encouraged by her father, who later became...
American skier
Ted Ligety is an American Alpine skier who was the first American man to win two Olympic gold medals in Alpine skiing events. Ligety began to ski when he was two years old. He started racing competitively...
Norwegian skier
Lasse Kjus is a Norwegian Alpine skier who overcame a series of medical problems to become one of the world’s most consistent skiers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Kjus took up skiing at age seven,...
Luxembourgian skier
Marc Girardelli is an Austrian-born Luxembourgian skier who won five overall World Cup titles in the 1980s and ’90s. Coached by his father, Helmut, Girardelli made his debut on the World Cup circuit at...
American skier
Picabo Street is an American Alpine skier who was one of the most successful downhill skiers of the 1990s. Street earned two World Cup downhill titles (1994–95 and 1995–96), and, noted for her natural...
Norwegian skier
Bente Skari is a Norwegian cross-country skier who won numerous World Cup titles and who dominated international events in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Skari was the daughter of former Olympic ski medalist...
Russian skier
Lyubov Yegorova is a Russian cross-country skier who was one of the two most decorated performers at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. She won three gold medals and a silver in 1994,...
American skier
Andrea Mead Lawrence was the first American Alpine skier to win two gold medals in a single Winter Olympics. Her Olympic victories, coupled with her U.S. championship titles in the downhill, slalom, and...
Finnish skier
Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen is a Finnish Nordic skier who was Finland’s foremost female competitor in the sport. She captured three Olympic gold medals and a bronze at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia...
Austrian skier
Anton Sailer was an Austrian Alpine skier who, in the 1956 Olympic Winter Games held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, was the first to sweep the gold medals in the Alpine competition, which at that time consisted...
Italian skier
Alberto Tomba is an Italian Alpine skier who earned five Olympic medals, including gold in both the slalom and the giant slalom at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and in the giant...
German skier
Rosi Mittermaier was a German Alpine skier who won two gold medals and one silver medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. Her performance was, at that time, the best ever by a woman Alpine...
French skier
Jean-Claude Killy is a French skier, a dominant figure in men’s international Alpine skiing competitions from 1965 through 1968 and a popular sports personage known for his irreverent behaviour. Killy,...
Swiss skier
Marie-Thérèse Nadig is a Swiss Alpine skier who won surprise victories over the pre-Olympic favourite, Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll, in the downhill and giant slalom events at the 1972 Games in Sapporo,...
Italian skier
Manuela Di Centa is an Italian Nordic skier who was the only athlete to win five Olympic medals in cross-country skiing at a single Winter Games (1994). A dominant force on the international level, she...
Norwegian athlete
Vegard Ulvang is a Norwegian Nordic skier known both for his successful racing career and for his many adventurous trips throughout the world. He skied across Greenland and climbed some of the highest...
Swiss skier
Vreni Schneider is a Swiss Alpine skier who was the dominant female skier of her generation and one of the greatest skiers in the history of the slalom and giant slalom events. She was the first woman...
Russian skier
Raisa Smetanina is a Russian cross-country skier who was the first woman to win 10 career medals at the Olympic Winter Games. A champion in both the individual and team events, Smetanina won a silver medal...
Liechtensteiner skier
Hanni Wenzel is a Liechtenstein Alpine skier who was the first athlete from her country to win an Olympic medal, earning a bronze at the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. She went on to win two...
Finnish skier
Eero Mäntyranta was a Finnish Nordic skier who took part in four Olympic Games, winning a total of seven medals. One of the outstanding Nordic skiers of the 1960s, he also won two 30-km world championships...
Norwegian ski jumper
Birger Ruud was a Norwegian ski jumper, who was the only athlete to win both a jumping and a downhill event in the same Olympics. Raised in the silver mining town of Kongsberg, Ruud and his brother Sigmund...
French skier and race-car driver
Henri Oreiller was a French skier and auto racer who won a double championship in the downhill and combined events of Alpine skiing during the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. His downhill...
Swedish skier
Ingemar Stenmark is a Swedish Alpine skier, a slalom specialist, who was one of the most successful performers in the history of the sport. In 1976 he became the first Scandinavian to win the Alpine World...
Russian skier
Galina Kulakova is a Russian skier of Udmurt descent who captured all three gold medals in women’s Nordic skiing at the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan, and a total of eight Olympic medals. A member...
Norwegian skier
Bjørn Daehlie is a Norwegian cross-country skier who won more total Olympic Games medals and gold medals than any other male cross-country skier. His Olympic success, combined with his record in World...
Swedish skier
Sixten Jernberg was a Swedish skier who was one of the most successful cross-country skiers of his era, amassing nine Olympic medals. Jernberg was originally a lumberjack by trade and first came to prominence...
Swedish skier
Toini Gustafsson is a Swedish skiing champion who competed in two Olympics, winning two gold and two silver medals in Nordic competition. Small in stature, Gustafsson compensated for her short stride length...
British athlete
Sir Arnold Lunn was a British slalom skier and international authority on skiing who in 1922 introduced slalom gates (paired poles between which the skier must pass on his downward descent) and thereby...
Austrian skier
Franz Klammer is an Austrian Alpine skier who specialized in the downhill event, winning 25 World Cup downhill races in his career. He won the gold medal in the downhill event at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck,...
Finnish skier
Veikko Hakulinen was a Finnish cross-country skier who earned seven Olympic medals in three Olympic competitions between 1952 and 1960. He also won world championships in the 15-km event in 1954 and 1958....
Canadian skier
Nancy Greene Raine is a Canadian Alpine skier and politician who was the winner of the inaugural women’s World Cup (1967–68). Greene’s family were all avid skiers, and she began skiing before she was six...
French skier
Marielle Goitschel is a French Alpine ski racer who won Olympic gold medals in both the slalom and giant slalom events in the 1960s. Goitschel and her older sister Christine formed a dominant pair in the...
Soviet skier
Nikolay Zimyatov is a Soviet cross-country skier who was the first man in the sport to win three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics (1980). As a 24-year-old student, Zimyatov made his Olympic debut...
German skier
Ulrich Wehling is a German skier who was the only three-time winner of the Nordic combined (two ski jumps totaled, plus a 15-km race) in Olympic history. In doing so, he was the first male competitor who...
Austrian skier
Hannes Schneider was an Austrian-born ski instructor who developed what came to be called the Arlberg technique, based on the snowplow, stem, and stem Christiania turns. He helped popularize skiing in...
Norwegian skier
Thorleif Haug was a Norwegian Nordic skier who won three gold medals and a bronze at the inaugural Winter Olympics at Chamonix, France, in 1924. His bronze medal was revoked 50 years later. Haug dominated...
Norwegian athlete and inventor
Sondre Norheim was a Norwegian skier who revolutionized ski design and ski equipment and helped to standardize certain aspects of the sport. Norheim in 1860 was the first to use bindings of willow, cane,...
Austrian skier
Annemarie Moser-Pröll is an Austrian Alpine skier who held the all-time record of six women’s World Cup championships, five in succession (1971–75). Pröll skied from the age of four. She tried out for...
American skier
Phil Mahre is an American Alpine skier who was voted the greatest male U.S. skier of all time by the United States Ski and Snowboard Association in 2002. Mahre was named to the U.S. Ski Team at age15....
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