Marc Girardelli

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

Marc Girardelli
Marc Girardelli in April 2014
Born (1963-07-18) 18 July 1963
Lustenau, Austria
World Cup career
Seasons1980 – 1996
Individual wins46
Indiv. podiums101
Overall titles5
Discipline titles10

Biography

Born in Lustenau, Austria, 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 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 December 20, 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«. Since 2005 too, he is married to Andrea Palenov - the former couple and its two children are living in separation (cit. German Wikipedia).

World Cup results

Season standings

SeasonAgeOverallSlalomGiant
Slalom
Super GDownhillCombined
1980168432not
run
198117261523
198218683
198319476not
awarded
3
19842031434
19852111119
1986221115342
1987232285210
1988245231347
198925135511
199026251512
19912711310281^
199228312721311
1993291133561
1994302291921
199531491810241
19963222202351472
1997331155849
^no season title awarded in combined in 1991, only one race completed

Season titles

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

Race victories

Season Date Location Race
198327 February 1983Gällivare, SwedenSlalom
198416 January 1984Parpan, SwitzerlandSlalom
22 January 1984Kitzbühel, AustriaSlalom
15 February 1984Borovets, BulgariaSlalom
18 March 1984Åre, SwedenSlalom
24 March 1984Oslo, NorwaySlalom
19852 December 1984Sestriere, ItalySlalom
11 December 1984Giant Slalom
17 December 1984Madonna di Campiglio, ItalySuper-G
4 January 1985Bad Wiessee, West GermanySlalom
13 January 1985Kitzbühel, AustriaSlalom
21 January 1985Wengen, SwitzerlandSlalom
27 January 1985Garmisch, West GermanySuper-G
16 February 1985Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia1Slalom
10 March 1985Aspen, USAGiant Slalom
20 March 1985Park City, USASlalom
23 March 1985Heavenly Valley, USASlalom
198615 December 1985Alta Badia, ItalyCombined
5 February 1986Crans-Montana, SwitzerlandSuper-G
7 February 1986St. Anton, AustriaCombined
19871 March 1987Furano, JapanSuper-G
15 March 1987Calgary, CanadaSuper-G
22 March 1987Sarajevo, Yugoslavia2Giant Slalom
19896 December 1988Sestriere, ItalySlalom
17 December 1988Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia1Slalom
13 January 1989Kitzbühel, AustriaDownhill
15 January 1989Combined
17 January 1989Adelboden, SwitzerlandGiant Slalom
20 January 1989Wengen, SwitzerlandDownhill
21 January 1989Downhill
22 January 1989Combined
26 February 1989Whistler, CanadaSuper-G
199113 January 1991Kitzbühel, AustriaSlalom
Combined
15 January 1991Adelboden, SwitzerlandGiant Slalom
19928 December 1991Val-d'Isère, FranceSuper-G
199313 December 1992Alta Badia, ItalyGiant Slalom
20 December 1992Kranjska Gora, SloveniaGiant Slalom
10 January 1993Garmisch, GermanyCombined
12 January 1993St. Anton, AustriaSuper-G
17 January 1993Combined
24 January 1993Veysonnaz, SwitzerlandCombined
199423 January 1994Wengen, SwitzerlandSuper-G
199515 January 1995Kitzbühel, AustriaCombined
22 January 1995Wengen, SwitzerlandCombined
199621 January 1996Veysonnaz, SwitzerlandCombined
1 now Slovenia
2 now Bosnia and Herzegovina

World championship results

  Year   Age  Slalom  Giant 
 Slalom 
Super-GDownhillCombined
19852123not run
19872342271
19892534141
199127159DNF
19932927cancelled3
199632DNS1DNF118181
  • The Super-G in 1993 was cancelled after multiple weather delays.

Olympic results

  Year   Age  Slalom  Giant 
 Slalom 
Super-GDownhillCombined
1988249DNF9
199228DSQ122DNFDNF1
199430DSQ1DNF1459

See also

References

  1. Verschoth, Anita (27 January 1988). "The Mouse May Roar". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  2. "COMPETITORS HAVING MORE THAN ONE PODIUM". fis-ski.com. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  3. "COMPETITORS HAVING MORE THAN ONE TOP 10 POSITION". fis-ski.com. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  4. "Marc Girardelli ar ski-db.com". Retrieved 14 March 2009.
  5. "Marc Girardelli became advisor of Minister of Tourism". Bansko.bg. 5 January 2015. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  6. "Marc Girardelli claims to be the majoritary owner of Yulen AD". economedia.bg. 17 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
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