| Marc Girardelli | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Marc Girardelli in April 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1963-07-18)18 July 1963 (age 61) 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 anAustrian–Luxembourgish formeralpine ski racer, a five-timeWorld Cup overall champion who excelled in all five alpine disciplines.
Born inLustenau, Austria into a family originally fromValsugana,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 alsoski 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 skiboarding school inSchruns, thirty miles (50 km) from Lustenau, while his parents preferred for him to stay in his hometown.[1] In1981, he started to make significant progress with his first podium (top-three finish) inWengen, Switzerland, and from that moment was in contention forslalom andgiant slalom podiums on a regular basis.[2]
He achieved his first World Cup victory in Sweden in February1983, but incurred his first major injury two weeks later, tearing all theligaments,cartilage, and atendon in his left knee in a crash during a downhill atLake Louise.[1] In thefollowing season, he won five slalom races and was third in the overall standings.[3]
In1985, Girardelli won 11 races and the World Cup overall title, followed by another overall title in1986 and a third in1989. After another major accident in1990, in which he narrowly avoidedparaplegia, he recovered to win the overall again in1991 and in1993 for a record fifth time – a record untilMarcel 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 the1980 or1984 Winter Olympics - but also to compete in the1982 World Championships. (In contrast, regulations did allow to start for Luxembourg in the World Cup). For a while, his appearance at the1985 World Championships was in doubt, but he was able to show evidence that he was in the process of claiming Luxembourg citizenship. TheFIS 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 the1987 World Championships. His firstOlympics were in1988 atCalgary, but he did not win a medal. In1992 atAlbertville, he won silver medals insuper-G andgiant slalom – the first medals for the Grand Duchy at the Winter Olympics, and Luxembourg's first Olympic medal sinceJosy Barthel's gold in the1500 metres in1952.
Girardelli won elevenWorld Championship medals, including four golds: (slalom atSaalbach in1991 andcombined atCrans-Montana in1987,Vail in1989, andSierra Nevada in1996).
His final World Cup race was in the downhill race atVal 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 ofBulgarian ski resortBansko. 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 ofBansko.[6]
He is an organiser of skiing events in several European winter sports resorts, and also inPortillo, 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,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-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 |
| |
Men's World Champions:Downhill • Super-G • Giant Slalom • Slalom • Combined • Parallel Giant Slalom • Mixed Team |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
