Ingemar Stenmark

Jan Ingemar Stenmark (; born 18 March 1956) is a Swedish former World Cup alpine ski racer. He is regarded as a legendary skier and one of the most prominent Swedish athletes ever, having won several Olympic medals and world cups during his career. When he retired in 1989, he held the record for the greatest number of international race wins, a record that was only broken in 2023 by Mikaela Shiffrin and remains unbroken amongst men. He competed for Tärna IK Fjällvinden.

Biography

Born in Joesjö, Storuman Municipality, Lapland, Stenmark and his family moved to Tärnaby near Norway when he was four years old. He became a childhood neighbour of Stig Strand (also born 1956), who tied Stenmark for the World Cup slalom title in 1983. Stenmark began skiing at the age of five and won his first national competition at age eight.

Competitive record

Stenmark made his World Cup debut in December 1973 at age 17. At the time of his retirement, he had won more international races than any other alpine skier to date: he took 86 World Cup wins (46 giant slaloms and 40 slaloms). He has since been passed by Mikaela Shiffrin. Stenmark won only in the two technical disciplines: slalom and giant slalom (the other events are downhill, super-G, first run in December 1982, and combined). He prioritized these disciplines over the high-speed downhill events, preferring to master the intricacies of skiing technique. His trainer, Hermann Nogler, once observed, "I watched him. He was always trying to find a better way, a smoother way, a faster way through the gates." He rarely competed in the other disciplines, as he was not comfortable with speeds in excess of . He won first place overall in the 1976 World Cup, becoming the first Scandinavian to do so, his first of three straight World Cup titles (1976–78). Stenmark still holds the record for the biggest win margin in a World Cup alpine race: 4.06 seconds ahead of 2nd placed Bojan Križaj in Jasna on 4 February 1979. Stenmark was known as a quiet champion, with short, but polite, responses to media questions.

For his three straight World Cup titles (1976–78), Stenmark earned the Holmenkollen medal in 1979 (shared with Erik Håker and Raisa Smetanina). Stenmark also earned the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal twice (1975, 1978). His 1978 medal was shared with tennis player Björn Borg, making them the only two men to ever win the honor twice (female alpine skier Anja Pärson received the medal in 2006 and 2007). Additionally, Stenmark stands alone as the only male skier to win eight World Cup titles in a single discipline – both in slalom and giant slalom.

At the World Championships in 1978 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen West Germany, Stenmark won the slalom by two-thirds of a second and the giant slalom by over two seconds, and successfully defended both world titles at the Winter Olympics in 1980 at Lake Placid, which also were counted as world championships. At the next worlds in 1982 in Austria, he had a sub-standard first run in the giant slalom and was upset by American Steve Mahre and settled for silver. Stenmark rebounded in the slalom and became the first to win the same title in three consecutive world championships. At age 25, it was his final medal in a major competition.

Stenmark's exploits led to him being described as the "slalom king" meaning that when he was not allowed to participate in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo by the International Ski Federation (FIS) for accepting promotional payments directly, rather than through the national ski federation, it was a major blow to the Swedish team's medal hopes. Hanni Wenzel of Liechtenstein was also banned; both were double gold medalists in 1980. Marc Girardelli, who was the best slalom racer during the 1983–84 season, was also banned for other reasons. Stenmark returned to Olympic competition in 1988 but was past his prime and did not medal despite achieving the fastest second run of the slalom competition.

He retired from World Cup competition at the end of the 1989 season in March, days before his 33rd birthday. At the time, he held the record for World Cup race wins, a record which held until 2023 when it was broken by Mikaela Shiffrin.

Other

During the years from 1976 to 1978 Stenmark, along with tennis player Björn Borg, became a national icon in Sweden. This was not changed by the fact that he moved to Monaco in 1980 for tax reasons. At age 40, he won the Swedish Superstars championship in 1996. On 26 December 2004, Stenmark survived the Indian Ocean earthquake while on vacation in Thailand. In 2015, he was a celebrity dancer on the Let's Dance 2015, where he teamed up with professional dancer Cecilia Ehrling.

He serves as an ambassador for the Börje Salming ALS Foundation, named after his close friend and Swedish ice hockey player who died of ALS in 2022.

In 2024, at the age of 68, Stenmark participated in the World Masters Athletic Championship where he jumped three meters and placed eighth overall.

Personal

Stenmark was married to Ann Uvhagen, a Lufthansa airline hostess, 1984–1987. They have a child, born 1984.

World Cup results

Season titles

* 19 titles – (3 overall, 8 GS, 8 SL)

Season standings

Race victories

86 wins – (46 GS, 40 SL), 155 podiums

Podiums

World championship results

From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the World Championships for alpine skiing.

At the World Championships from 1954 through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).

Olympic results

*Stenmark and fellow reigning double Olympic champion Hanni Wenzel were banned from the 1984 Olympics for having accepted promotional payments directly, rather than through their national ski federations.

Other honours

* Jerring Award: 1979, 1980
* H. M. The King's Medal: 1978

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stenmark, Ingemar
1956 births
Swedish male alpine skiers
Alpine skiers at the 1976 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 1980 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 1988 Winter Olympics
Olympic alpine skiers for Sweden
Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics
Olympic medalists in alpine skiing
Olympic gold medalists for Sweden
Olympic bronze medalists for Sweden
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions
Holmenkollen medalists
Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Monaco
People from Storuman Municipality
Living people
Tärna IK Fjällvinden skiers
Skiers from Västerbotten County
20th-century Swedish sportsmen