Benjamin Raich

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Benjamin Raich Alpine skiing
Benjamin Raich in January 2008
Benjamin Raich in January 2008
nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday 28th February 1978 (age 42)
place of birth Leins , Austria
size 181 cm
Weight 83 kg
Career
discipline Slalom , giant slalom , super-G ,
downhill , combination
society SV Leins Pitztal
status resigned
End of career September 10, 2015
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × gold 0 × silver 2 × bronze
World championships 3 × gold 6 × silver 1 × bronze
Junior World Championship 5 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
Olympic rings winter Olympics
bronze Salt Lake City 2002 combination
bronze Salt Lake City 2002 slalom
gold Turin 2006 Giant slalom
gold Turin 2006 slalom
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
silver St. Anton 2001 slalom
gold Bormio 2005 slalom
gold Bormio 2005 combination
silver Bormio 2005 Giant slalom
silver Bormio 2005 team
bronze Bormio 2005 Super G
gold Are 2007 team
silver Are 2007 Super combination
silver Val d'Isère 2009 Giant slalom
silver Garmisch-Partenk. 2011 team
FIS Alpine Ski Junior World Championships
gold Hoch-Ybrig 1996 slalom
gold Schladming 1997 Giant slalom
gold Megève 1998 slalom
gold Megève 1998 Giant slalom
gold Megève 1998 combination
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut March 10, 1996
 Individual world cup victories 36
 Overall World Cup 1. ( 2005/06 )
 Downhill World Cup 26th ( 2004/05 )
 Super G World Cup 3rd ( 2007/08 )
 Giant Slalom World Cup 1. (2004/05, 2005/06)
 Slalom World Cup 1. ( 2000/01 , 2004/05,
2006/07 )
 Combination World Cup 1. (2004/05, 2005/06,
2009/10 )
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Super G 1 5 2
 Giant slalom 14th 10 11
 slalom 14th 11 13
 combination 7th 3 1
 team 1 0 1
 

Benjamin "Benni" Raich (born February 28, 1978 in Leins, Arzl im Pitztal ) is a former Austrian ski racer . He was twice Olympic champion , three times world champion and decided the overall World Cup for himself in the 2005/06 season . Added to this is the eight-time win of a World Cup discipline and five junior world championship titles. With 36 World Cup victories , he is the third most successful ski racer of the ÖSV after Marcel Hirscher and Hermann Maier .

biography

In 1991 Raich won the Trofeo Topolino . He celebrated his first major successes at the Junior World Championships. He won gold in slalom in 1996 and in giant slalom in 1997 . In 1998 he became junior world champion in giant slalom, slalom and combined, as well as the European Cup winner in giant slalom, slalom and overall ranking.

On March 10, 1996 he contested his first race in the Alpine Ski World Cup at the Kvitfjell slalom . In his fourth World Cup race, the Giant Slalom in Vail on March 15, 1997, he was 18th to win World Cup points for the first time. He achieved his first victory in the World Cup on January 7, 1999 at the Schladming night slalom , when he still drove to victory from 23rd place in the first round.

At the beginning of his career, Raich was considered a pure technology specialist who mainly competed in the slalom and giant slalom disciplines. But gradually he developed into an all-rounder who can also be up front in the speed disciplines, especially in the Super-G.

First world championship and Olympic medals

He won his first medal at the 2001 World Championships in St. Anton am Arlberg , where he took silver in the slalom. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City , he was able to win the bronze medal in the combination. In the slalom he finished fourth, but since the third-placed Brit Alain Baxter was subsequently disqualified because of a positive doping test, Raich was also awarded the bronze medal for the slalom by the International Olympic Committee . At the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz , he just missed another medal in fourth place in the slalom.

«Rain of medals» and overall World Cup victory

At the 2005 World Cup in Bormio , Raich was the undisputed superstar of the event alongside Janica Kostelić . He became world champion in combination and slalom. He also won the silver medal and bronze in the Super-G in the giant slalom and in the team competition .

After being at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Sestriere first lying in combination slalom lead einfädelte and could not shine in the Super-G, then he won both the giant slalom and the slalom gold medal. At the 2007 World Championships in Åre he won the silver medal in the super combined and the gold medal in the team competition with Marlies Schild , Renate Götschl , Michaela Kirchgasser , Fritz Strobl and Mario Matt . As fourth in the slalom, he missed another medal by just three hundredths of a second. At the 2009 World Championships in Val-d'Isère , he won the silver medal in giant slalom behind Carlo Janka , he was fifth in Super-G, and in slalom he was eliminated in the second run (after seventh place in the first run).

Raich stayed without a medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver . In the slalom he was fourth only five hundredths of a second short of a podium, in the giant slalom and in the super combined he was sixth each. At the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , he was seriously injured in the team competition after finishing 5th in the Super-G and 4th in the Super Combined. He suffered a tear in the left anterior cruciate ligament , a cartilage rupture in the outer tibial head and a partial tear in the outer meniscus . His teammates reached the final, where they lost to the French team and took silver. It was Raich's 14th medal at major events.

New overall point record in the World Cup

After this injury, he was able to contest races from the start in the following season 2011/12 , but it took until February 25, 2012 until he was able to celebrate his first victory since December 11, 2009 - in the Super-G in which he had never won before. At the World Cup finals in Schladming , he finished fifth in the downhill. The 45 points gained for this were enough to replace Kjetil André Aamodt from the top in the ranking of World Cup points achieved during his entire career: Aamodt had a total of 13,252 points from 1990 to 2006, Raich set a provisional new record with the descent from Schladming from 13,281 points, which he was able to increase to 14,386 by the end of the 2014/15 season . However, this ranking is only meaningful for seasons from 1992 onwards, as only 25 points were previously awarded for victory. If the points scored before 1992 are enhanced by a factor 4 (exactly matches for places one to three and six to eight, for the remaining top ten places gives it one or two points downward deviation), then there is Ingemar Stenmark with 16,252 points ahead of Raich, Marc Girardelli is already behind him with this calculation method with 14,068 points; However, up to 1991 there were no points for places 16 to 30, and up to and including the 1978/79 season points were only awarded for the top ten (the deletion results at that time must also be taken into account).

In the 2012/13 season , Raich could not take his good form from the end of last season and initially fought to catch up. Shortly before the World Championships in Schladming, however, he demonstrated his rising form, especially in his special disciplines slalom and giant slalom with a few top 10 placings and fourth place in the super combination of Wengen. Due to these good results, he was allowed to start in these three disciplines at the World Championships in Schladming , where he failed in the super combination in slalom on the way to a possible medal. Raich ended the season with just six places in the top ten and remained without a podium for the first time since the 1997/98 season . At the end of the season he declared that he no longer wanted to contest downhill runs and Super-G races in the World Cup, but instead would concentrate fully on his special disciplines, slalom and giant slalom.

Towards the end of your career

In the 2013/14 World Cup winter , Raich started the season better than in previous years and finished eighth in the first slalom (Levi). With another four top ten placements (two each in slalom and giant slalom), he qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , where he finished 7th in giant slalom and was eliminated in slalom. In the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora on March 8, 2014, he was second after a lean period of more than two years (since winning the Super-G in Crans-Montana on February 25, 2012) again on the podium.

At the beginning of the 2014/15 season , Raich just barely missed the podium in the first two giant slaloms (Sölden, Beaver Creek) as fourth and was able to achieve another top ten place in Åre, which gave him an early start at the world championship in Vail - the place where he first participated in an Alpine World Ski Championships in 1999. At the World Championships he was eliminated from the giant slalom (in the 1st run, with the best first intermediate time) and the slalom, but in his next race, the giant slalom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on March 1, 2015, he finished third, about a year later his last one so far, again a podium.

On September 10, 2015, Raich announced his resignation at a press conference.

Others

In 2001, 2005 and 2007 Raich won the Slalom World Cup, in 2005 and 2006 the Giant Slalom World Cup, in 2005, 2006 and 2010 the Combination World Cup, for which a crystal ball has only been awarded since 2007. After finishing second in 2005, he also won the overall World Cup for the first time in 2006. In the overall World Cup ranking, he came second five times, underscoring his world class. In 2009 he was defeated by Aksel Lund Svindal by only two points in the battle for the overall World Cup - in terms of points this was the tightest World Cup decision ever, and in percentage terms it was exceeded by the tightest decision for women in the 2010/11 season . Between 2004 and 2010, i.e. for seven consecutive years, Raich was always among the top three in the overall World Cup ranking, which apart from him only Gustav Thöni , Pirmin Zurbriggen , Katja Seizinger , Maria Höfl-Riesch and Marcel Hirscher have achieved. In 2008, Raich was among the top ten in the overall ranking in all disciplines except for downhill.

According to statistics, he has participated in 24 award ceremonies at major events (14 times on the podium, 10 times with places four to six). In fact, at the 2002 Olympic Games, Alain Baxter stood on the podium at the slalom award ceremony , who was later deprived of third place (Raich was fourth at the award ceremony anyway), while Raich at the 2011 World Championships at the time of the award ceremony for the team competition was already in the hospital. Furthermore, with 36 World Cup victories, he is in seventh place in the “all-time best list” of the men's World Cup . In 2006 Raich was voted Austrian Sportsman of the Year and awarded the Skieur d'Or by the International Association of Ski Journalists (AIJS) .

Personal

Raich has a sister, the former ski racer Carina Raich , and a brother named Florian. The snowboarder Heidi Neururer is his cousin. Since 2004, Raich has been in a relationship with the former ski racer Marlies Schild (* 1981), whom he married on April 25, 2015. Their first child was born on October 20, 2015, the second child on July 17, 2017, each with a son. On May 10, 2019, the couple also became parents to a daughter.

He was hired by the ORF as an analyst for the technical ski competitions and was first used on December 22, 2015 at the night slalom in Madonna di Campiglio .

successes

winter Olympics

World championships

World Cup ratings

season total Departure Super G Giant slalom slalom combination City event
space Points space Points space Points space Points space Points space Points space Points
1997/98 96. 26th - - - - 37. 26th - - - - - -
1998/99 10. 575 - - 32. 29 6th 286 7th 260 - - - -
1999/00 9. 788 - - - - 4th 420 6th 368 - - - -
2000/01 4th 865 - - - - 4th 320 1. 545 - - - -
2001/02 9. 526 - - - - 2. 429 19th 97 - - - -
2002/03 8th. 622 - - 37. 24 8th. 231 6th 367 - - - -
2003/04 3. 1139 35. 41 8th. 215 4th 255 3. 468 2. 160 - -
2004/05 2. 1454 26th 117 6th 262 1. 423 1. 552 1. 100 - -
2005/06 1. 1410 28. 58 15th 116 1. 481 3. 410 1. 345 - -
2006/07 2. 1255 32. 59 13. 106 3. 319 1. 605 5. 166 - -
2007/08 2. 1298 36. 33 3. 286 2. 438 8th. 358 6th 183 - -
2008/09 2. 1007 32. 44 14th 97 2. 462 10. 239 5. 165 - -
2009/10 2. 1091 - - 4th 210 3. 331 6th 304 1. 246 - -
2010/11 11. 547 54. 9 8th. 184 19th 99 15th 180 18th 45 5. 30th
2011/12 12. 771 31. 55 7th 254 13. 180 16. 192 12. 90 - -
2012/13 20th 344 - - 38. 17th 16. 127 18th 150 8th. 50 - -
2013/14 20th 361 - - - - 6th 238 17th 123 - - - -
2014/15 28. 307 - - - - 9. 227 23. 80 - - - -

World Cup victories

In his career, Raich achieved 92 podium places in individual races, including 36 victories (14 × giant slalom, 14 × slalom, 5 × super combination, 2 × combination, 1 × super-G):

Giant slalom
date place country
January 10, 1999 Flachau Austria
February 26, 2000 Yongpyong South Korea
March 18, 2000 Bormio Italy
December 21, 2001 Kranjska Gora Slovenia
January 3, 2004 Flachau Austria
February 26, 2005 Kranjska Gora Slovenia
December 21, 2005 Kranjska Gora Slovenia
January 7, 2006 Adelboden Switzerland
March 17, 2006 Are Sweden
January 6, 2007 Adelboden Switzerland
March 3, 2007 Kranjska Gora Slovenia
December 7, 2008 Beaver Creek United States
January 10, 2009 Adelboden Switzerland
March 13, 2009 Are Sweden
Super combination
date place country
January 13, 2006 Wengen Switzerland
February 3, 2006 Chamonix France
March 9, 2007 Kvitfjell Norway
December 12, 2008 Val d'Isère France
December 11, 2009 Val d'Isère France
slalom
date place country
January 7, 1999 Schladming Austria
January 17, 1999 Wengen Switzerland
January 14, 2001 Wengen Switzerland
January 21, 2001 Kitzbühel Austria
January 23, 2001 Schladming Austria
March 11, 2001 Are Sweden
January 18, 2004 Wengen Switzerland
January 27, 2004 Schladming Austria
December 5, 2004 Beaver Creek United States
March 10, 2006 Shigakogen Japan
November 12, 2006 Levi Finland
January 30, 2007 Schladming Austria
March 18, 2007 Lenzerheide Switzerland
December 9, 2007 Bad Kleinkirchheim Austria
combination
date place country
January 14, 2005 Wengen Switzerland
January 22, 2006 Kitzbühel Austria
Super G
date place country
February 25, 2012 Crans-Montana Switzerland

In addition, there are 2 podium places in team competitions , including 1 victory.

European Cup

  • 1996/97 season : 5th slalom ranking
  • 1997/98 season : 1st overall ranking, 1st slalom ranking, 1st giant slalom ranking
  • 18 podium places, including 9 wins:
date place country discipline
December 8, 1997 Valloire France Giant slalom
December 9, 1997 Valloire France Giant slalom
December 13, 1997 Obereggen Italy slalom
December 22, 1997 Kreischberg Austria Giant slalom
January 5, 1998 Kranjska Gora Slovenia Giant slalom
February 10, 1998 St. Moritz Switzerland Giant slalom
February 11, 1998 St. Moritz Switzerland slalom
March 11, 1998 Bardonecchia Italy Giant slalom
December 7, 1998 Valloire France Giant slalom

Junior World Championships

More Achievements

Awards

Web links

Commons : Benjamin Raich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Finally bronze for Benjamin Raich krone.at, December 11, 2002
  2. Raich badly injured in the knee . sport.orf.at, February 16, 2011, accessed on February 16, 2011
  3. sport.orf.at: "Marlies Schild and Benjamin Raich got married" (April 25, 2015)
  4. Marlies and Benni are proud parents
  5. Marlies & Benjamin Raich: The 2nd baby is here!
  6. A daughter | Benni and Marlies Raich are parents again Kleine Zeitung, May 12, 2019.