Stephan Keppler (born February 1, 1983, in

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 ...

) is a German alpine skier. Keppler grew up in Albstadt, a town on the Swabian Alb, in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. He learned skiing at his local winter sports club, WSV, of Ebingen. As an adult, he joined the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

, the German military, as an army-sponsored athlete (German: "Sportsoldat"). In 1999, he took part in his first FIS races. In the same season, he won the German youth championship in the slalom, in 2003 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 ...

and Super G competitions. Since 2003, Keppler has been starting in races of the

FIS Alpine Ski World Cup The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang (skiing), Serge Lang and the alpine ski team d ...

, with his debut at Garmisch on February 22. At the same location, he earned his first points in that competition in 2006, finishing 21st in the downhill. In that same year, he won the German championship in downhill and Super G; this success was followed up by the same title in the Super G in 2007. Keppler took part in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2007 in

Åre Åre () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpe ...

, but could not reach any satisfying result there. In the following FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2009 in Val-d’Isère he could improve his performances, with results in the top 20 in the downhill and Alpine skiing combined competitions. He represented Germany at the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

Vancouver 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 ...

. In the downhill event he finished 24th and 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 ...

could not finish the course. His biggest success so far came early in the 2010/11 World Cup season, when he came in 2nd, only beaten by Michael Walchhofer, in the Super G at Gröden/Val Gardena,

South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...

, on December 17, 2010. Overall, he has reached the top 10 four times in his World Cup career.

References

1983 births Living people German male alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers for Germany Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics People from Albstadt Skiers from Tübingen (region) 21st-century German sportsmen {{Germany-alpine-skiing-bio-stub