Anna Schaffelhuber Siegerehrung Rinn 2010

Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber (born 26 January 1993) is a German para-alpine skier. At the

2014 Winter Paralympics The 2014 Winter Paralympics (), the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were an international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Par ...

she won five gold medals, becoming only the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events.

Early life

Schaffelhuber was born in

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, Germany. She was born with an incomplete spinal cord and as a result has

paraplegia Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neura ...

and uses a wheelchair. She began

monoski A monoski is a single wide ski used for skiing on snow. The same boots, bindings, and poles are used as in alpine skiing. Unlike in snowboarding, both feet face forward, rather than sideways to the direction of travel. Similar equipment incl ...

ing at age five and at age fourteen received a scholarship to join a national junior skiing programme.

Career

Schaffelhuber competes in the LW10 para-alpine skiing classification using a sitting mono-ski and

outriggers An outrigger is a projecting structure on a boat, with specific meaning depending on types of vessel. Outriggers may also refer to legs on a wheeled vehicle that are folded out when it needs stabilization, for example on a crane that lifts he ...

. She was selected for the German team at the

2010 Winter Paralympics The 2010 Winter Paralympics (), or the tenth Paralympic Winter Games, were held in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, from March 12 to 21, 2010. The opening ceremony took place in BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Closing ...

held in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada where she competed in four events. She won the bronze medal in the

super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event ...

finishing behind

Claudia Lösch Claudia Lösch (born 19 October 1988) is a successful Austrians, Austrian Paralympian and alpine monoskier. She won gold medals in the slalom and super slalom at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. She also won a silver medal at the Alpin ...

of Austria and American Alana Nichols in a time of 1 minute 38.25 seconds. She also finished fourth in two events, the

super combined 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 s ...

and the slalom, and seventh in the

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in Slalom skiing, slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant sl ...

. During the

closing ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

of the Games she carried the German flag. She skied at the 2011 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, held in

Sestriere Sestriere (, , , ) is a ski resort in Piedmont, Italy, a ''comune'' (municipality) of the Metropolitan City of Turin. It is situated in Val Susa, from the France, French border. Its name derives from Latin language, Latin: ''ad petram sistrariam ...

, Italy. She won the three gold medals, in the sitting women's super-combined, slalom and

, a silver in the team event, as well as finishing fourth in both the downhill and

. At the 2013

IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships The World Para Alpine Skiing Championships, known before the 2017 edition as the IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, along with the Paralympic Games, Winter Paralympic Games, are the most prestigious level of international competition in Paraly ...

held in La Molina, Spain, she successfully defended her title in the slalom, winning the gold medal in a time of 2 minutes 26.18 seconds. She won four other medals; silver medals in the giant slalom and super-G; and bronze medals in the super combined and downhill. She competed in her second Paralympics at the

2014 Winter Games The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. She claimed her first Paralympic gold medal by winning the sitting downhill in a time of 1 minute 35.55 seconds. She won a second gold medal in the

, finishing first in a time of 1 minute 29.11 seconds. Competing in the slalom she was initially disqualified for not having her outriggers in a stationary position at the start of her first run and compatriot Anna-Lena Forster was identified as the gold medal winner in press releases. Following an appeal Schaffelhuber was reinstated and awarded her third gold medal of the Games with Forster winning the silver medal. Schaffelhuber won a fourth gold medal in the combined, with Forster again taking silver as the two German skiers were the only athletes to complete the race. She won her fifth gold medal, completing a clean sweep in the sitting events, by winning the

in a combined time of 2 minutes 51.26 seconds. She became the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events after

Lauren Woolstencroft Lauren Woolstencroft (born November 24, 1981, in Calgary, Alberta)The Province"Woolstencroft's electric performance" Damian Inwood, 21 March 2010, (accessed 21 March 2010) is a Canadian alpine skier and electrical engineer. Born mis ...

in 2010. For her performance at the Games, Schaffelhuber was awarded Best Female at the Paralympic Sports Awards.

Awards

In November 2010 Schaffelhuber was voted the

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; ) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the international federation for nin ...

's athlete of the month, taking 45% of the public vote. In November 2011 she was named Germany's Disabled Athlete of the Year and she was the German National Paralympic Committee's 2013 Female Disabled Athlete of Year.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schaffelhuber, Anna 1993 births Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Paralympics Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Paralympics Alpine skiers at the 2018 Winter Paralympics German female alpine skiers Living people Medalists at the 2010 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 2014 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Paralympics Paralympic alpine skiers for Germany Paralympic bronze medalists for Germany Paralympic gold medalists for Germany Paralympic silver medalists for Germany Sportspeople from Regensburg Skiers from Bavaria People with paraplegia Paralympic Sport Awards — Best Female winners Paralympic medalists in alpine skiing 21st-century German sportswomen