Hannelore (Hanni) Wenzel. vancouver2010.com. 23 January 2010 (born 14 December 1956) is a retired

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

er alpine ski racer. Wenzel is a former Olympic,

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, and world champion. She won Liechtenstein's first-ever Olympic medal at the

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (, ) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 (), were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from February 4 to 15, 1976. The games were awarded to Inn ...

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and its first two Olympic gold medals four years later in Lake Placid,

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Biography

Born in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

Straubing Straubing (; Central Bavarian: ''Strauwing'') is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the Districts of Germany, district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Ba ...

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 ...

, Wenzel moved to Liechtenstein at an early age. After she and her younger brother

Andreas Andreas () is a name derived from the Greek noun ἀνήρ ''anēr'', with genitive ἀνδρός ''andros'', which means "man". See the article on Andrew for more information. The Scandinavian name is earliest attested as antreos in a runeston ...

had success in ski racing – Hanni won the gold medal in slalom and silver in the combined at the 1974 World Championships – the family was granted Liechtenstein citizenship. Winning the slalom title on 8 February 1974, she did become the youngest female Alpine Skiing World Champion in the slalom discipline (17 years, 1 month, 25 days) - ousting

Esme Mackinnon Esmé Mackinnon (2 December 1913 – 9 July 1999), known as Muffie, was a British Alpine skiing, alpine skier from Edinburgh, Scotland, remembered as the first female International Ski Federation, FIS FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, W ...

who was the first female Alpine Skiing Champion in 1931; the British racer was 17 years, 2 month and 17 days young when she was victorious in the slalom race on 19 February 1931. At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, she won the country's first Olympic medal, a bronze in the slalom at Axamer Lizum, and also picked up another world championship medal in the combined. After winning the

overall title in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

, Wenzel's best year came in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

. At the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

in Lake Placid, she won gold medals in the slalom and

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 ...

, and just missed out on a sweep by taking the silver in the downhill at Whiteface Mountain. She also easily won the world championship gold medal in the combined event, its final edition as a "paper race" and her fourth world championship medal in that event. At the same Olympics, her brother also won a silver medal, placing Liechtenstein high in the medal ranking of the games. In addition to her Olympic success, she won nine World Cup races in 1980 and captured the overall, giant slalom, and combined season titles, and brother Andreas won the men's overall for a Wenzel family sweep of the overall titles. Her daughter Tina Weirather won a bronze medal in

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 ...

for

at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

PyeongChang Pyeongchang ( , ; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seo ...

. Wenzel was banned from the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...

by the

International Ski Federation The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, also known as FIS (), is the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding. It was previously known as the International Ski Federation () until 26 May 2022 when the name was cha ...

(FIS) for accepting promotional payments directly, rather than through the national ski federation. Ingemar Stenmark of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

was also banned; both were double gold medalists in

. Wenzel retired following the 1984 season with two Olympic titles, four World titles, two overall World Cups, three discipline World Cups plus three combined titles, and 33 World Cup victories. (Through

, the Olympics were also the World Championships.) Through the

, Liechtenstein has won a total of ten medals at the Winter Olympics, with eight won by two sets of siblings – the Wenzels earned six, while brothers

Willi Willi is a given name, nickname (often a short form or hypocorism of Wilhelm) and surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Willi Apel (1893–1988), German-American musicologist * Willi Boskovsky (1909–1991), Austrian violin ...

and Paul Frommelt are responsible for two more.

World cup results

Season titles

7 titles – (2 overall, 2

, 1 slalom, 2 combined)

Season standings

Race victories

* 33 wins – (11 SL, 12 GS, 2 DH, 8 K) * 89 podiums

World Championship results

From

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

through

, the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

were also the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

for alpine skiing.
At the World Championships from

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).

Olympic results

*Wenzel and Ingemar Stenmark were banned from the 1984 Olympics (endorsement compensation).

Family

Wenzel is a sister of World Cup ski racers Petra Wenzel and

Andreas Wenzel Andreas Wenzel (born 18 March 1958) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Liechtenstein, active from 1976 to 1988. Born in Planken, he was the overall World Cup champion in 1980, the same season in which his older sister Hanni won the wo ...

, and the wife of Austrian ski racer Harti Weirather, the world champion in downhill in 1982. Wenzel and Weirather run their own sports marketing agency, and their daughter Tina Weirather is also a World Cup ski racer.. fisalpine.com

Honours

* Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Principality of Liechtenstein (06/09/2017).

References

External links

*
wwp-group.com
– Weirather-Wenzel & Partner GmbH – ' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wenzel, Hani 1956 births Living people German female alpine skiers Liechtenstein female alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers for Liechtenstein Olympic gold medalists for Liechtenstein Olympic silver medalists for Liechtenstein Olympic bronze medalists for Liechtenstein Olympic medalists in alpine skiing Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1976 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1980 Winter Olympics FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions German emigrants to Liechtenstein Sportspeople from Straubing Skiers from Lower Bavaria 20th-century German sportswomen