Rosi Mittermaier

Updated：2008-07-08 14:13 | Source：beijing2008.cn

　　Innsbruck 1976, XII Olympic Winter Games: Rosi MITTERMAIER from the Federal Republic of Germany in action in the slalom. She almost became the first woman to win all three Alpine events just missing out by hundredths of a second. Credit: Getty Images Hulton/Archive

　　Born: 5 August 1950

　　Birthplace: Reit-i-Winkel (Germany)

　　Nationality: Germany

　　Sport: Skiing

　　ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

　　Grenoble 1968

　　Sapporo 1972

　　Innsbruck 1976

　　AWARDS

　　Olympic medals:

　　Gold: 2

　　Silver: 1

　　Other results:

　　World Championships

　　Gold: 2 (76)

　　Silver: 1 (76)

　　Innsbruck Alpine Heroine

　　Although she had been competing on the World Cup circuit for ten years and had raced in both the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, Rosi Mittermaier had never won a major downhill race. However, at the Innsbruck Games, she won the gold medal by a half second. Three days later she entered the slalom event. After the first run, she trailed German teammate Pamela Behr by nine hundredths of a second. Mittermaier recorded the fastest time of the second run, and her combined time gave her the victory by a third of a second. When the giant slalom was contested two days later, there was great excitement because Mittermaier had the chance to become the first woman to sweep all three Alpine events. The first skier, 18-year-old Kathy Kreiner, flashed across the finish line in 1:29.13. Mittermaier was a half-second ahead of Kreiner‘s pace midway through the course, but she approached one of the lower gates too directly and finished an eighth of a second slower than Kreiner. Still, she left Innsbruck with two gold medals and one silver medal.

Editor : LiuAnqi