Marc Girardelli (born 18 July 1963) is an

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 ...

n–

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

ish former alpine ski racer, a five-time World Cup overall champion who excelled in all five alpine disciplines.

Biography

Born in Lustenau, Austria into a family originally from Valsugana,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, 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 Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the final ...

. 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 A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

in Schruns, from Lustenau, while his parents preferred for him to stay in his hometown. 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. He achieved his first World Cup victory in Sweden in February

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, but incurred his first major injury two weeks later, tearing all the

ligament A ligament is a type of fibrous connective tissue in the body that connects bones to other bones. It also connects flight feathers to bones, in dinosaurs and birds. All 30,000 species of amniotes (land animals with internal bones) have liga ...

s, cartilage, and a

tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue, dense fibrous connective tissue that connects skeletal muscle, muscle to bone. It sends the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system, while withstanding tensi ...

in his left knee in a crash during a downhill at Lake Louise. In the following season, he won five slalom races and was third in the overall standings. 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. Because Girardelli retained Austrian citizenship while skiing for Luxembourg, he was ineligible to compete in the

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 ...

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 ...

- 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 Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, but he did not win a medal. In

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

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 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 ...

medals, including four golds: (slalom at Saalbach in 1991 and combined at Crans-Montana in

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

, Vail in 1989, and Sierra Nevada in 1996). His final World Cup race was in the downhill race at Val 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 of

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n 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. On 17 December 2018 Girardelli disclosed that he holds the majoritary share of Yulen AD, the controversial operator of the ski zone of Bansko. He is an organiser of skiing events in several European winter sports resorts, and also in

Portillo, Chile Portillo is a ski resort in South America, located in the Andes mountains of Chile. In the Valparaíso Region, it is from Los Andes, Chile, Los Andes, the nearest city, and by vehicle from Santiago, Chile, Santiago. Its hotel sits at an elevatio ...

. Since 2005 he is an IBO for kids fashion in sports, called »Marc Girardelli Skiwear«.

World Cup results

Season standings

Season titles

Race victories

*46 total – (3 downhill, 9 super G, 7 giant slalom, 16 slalom, 11 combined) * 100 podiums :¹ :²

World championship results

* The Super-G in 1993 was cancelled after multiple weather delays.

Olympic results

References

External links

* *
Marc Girardelli
at SkiWorldCup.org
MarcGirardelli.com – personal web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Girardelli, Marc 1963 births Living people People from Lustenau Luxembourgian male alpine skiers Austrian male alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers for Luxembourg Olympic silver medalists for Luxembourg Alpine skiers at the 1988 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Naturalised citizens of Luxembourg Austrian people of Italian descent Olympic medalists in alpine skiing FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics Luxembourgian people of Austrian descent Skiers from Vorarlberg 20th-century Austrian sportsmen