Marc Girardelli

Marc Girardelli
Full name Marc Girardelli
Born (1963-07-18) 18 July 1963
Lustenau, Austria
World Cup career
Seasons 19801996
Individual wins 46
Indiv. podiums 101
Updated on 2010-12-22.
Olympic medal record
Men's Alpine Skiing
Competitor for Luxembourg Luxembourg
1992 Albertville Super G
1992 Albertville Giant Slalom
World Championships
1987 Crans-Montana Combined
1989 Vail Combined
1991 Saalbach Slalom
1996 Sierra Nevada Combined
1985 Bormio Slalom
1987 Crans-Montana Giant Slalom
1987 Crans-Montana Super-G
1993 Morioka Slalom
1985 Bormio Giant Slalom
1989 Vail Slalom
1993 Morioka Combined

Marc Girardelli (born 18 July 1963) is a former alpine ski racer, a five-time World Cup overall champion who excelled in all five alpine disciplines.

Girardelli was born in Lustenau, Austria, started skiing at the age of five, and started racing at seven. He enjoyed significant success at junior level, winning local competitions in not only alpine skiing but also ski jumping. After initially racing for Austria until 1976, he switched to racing for Luxembourg due to disagreements about coaching - the Austrian skiing federation wanted Girardelli to attend a ski boarding school in Schruns, which is 30 miles from Lustenau, whilst 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.

In 1983 he achieved his first victory in Sweden, but shortly thereafter he received his first major injury, when he tore all the ligaments, cartilage and a tendon in his left knee in a crash during a World Cup downhill at Lake Louise.[1] In spite of this major injury, he went on to win five slalom races in 1984 and placed third in the overall World Cup standings.

In 1985, Girardelli won 11 races and the World Cup overall title. This was followed by another World Cup 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 World Cup title again in 1991 and then in 1993 for a fifth time – an achievement which has yet to be equaled on the men's side (Annemarie Moser-Pröll won six women's World Cups). In total, Girardelli won 46 World Cup races (fourth-most of all time among men) and recorded 100 podiums.[2]

Because Girardelli retained Austrian citizenship while skiing for Luxembourg, he was ineligible to compete in the 1980 or 1984 Winter Olympics. He received Luxembourg citizenship in time to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary but failed to win a medal. At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, however, he won silver medals in Super G and in giant slalom.

Girardelli won 11 World Championship medals, including 4 golds: (slalom at Saalbach in 1991 and combined at Crans-Montana in 1987, Vail Ski Resort in 1989, and Sierra Nevada in 1996).

His final World Cup race was in December 1996; he retired from international competition at age 33.

Girardelli is a 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.[3]

World Cup results

Season standings

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 31028 1^
1992 28 3 12 7 2 13 11
1993 29 1 13 356 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

^no season title awarded in combined in 1991, only one race completed

Season titles

Season Discipline
1984Slalom
1985Overall
Slalom
Giant Slalom
1986 Overall
1989 Overall
Downhill
Combined
1991Overall
Slalom
1993Overall
Combined
1994Downhill
1995Combined

Individual race victories

46 total (3 downhill, 9 super G, 7 giant slalom, 16 slalom, 11 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, West Germany Super-G
16 February 1985 Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia1 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, 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

1 now Slovenia
2 now Bosnia and Herzegovina

References

  1. 1 2 Verschoth, Anita (27 January 1988). "The Mouse May Roar". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  2. "Marc Girardelli ar ski-db.com". Retrieved 14 March 2009.
  3. "Marc Girardelli became advisor of Minister of Tourism". Bansko.bg. 2015-01-05. Retrieved 18 January 2016.

External links

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