Christine Sponring
Christine Sponring 
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| nation |
 Austria
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| birthday | 22nd June 1983 (age 37) | |||||||||||||||
| place of birth | Schwaz , Austria | |||||||||||||||
| size | 167 cm | |||||||||||||||
| Weight | 62 kg | |||||||||||||||
| job | Executive staff | |||||||||||||||
| Career | ||||||||||||||||
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| discipline |
Downhill , Super-G , giant slalom , slalom , combination |
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| society | WSV Weerberg | |||||||||||||||
| status | resigned | |||||||||||||||
| End of career | January 8, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
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| Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup | ||||||||||||||||
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Christine Sponring (born June 22, 1983 in Schwaz ) is a former Austrian ski racer from Weerberg in Tyrol . She started in all disciplines, was initially in slalom , but after her many injuries, increasingly successful in the fast disciplines. She celebrated her greatest success with the vice-world title in combination in St. Anton 2001.
biography
Christine Sponring competed in her first ski races at the age of three, then won numerous school races and the district cup several times. When she was eleven, she decided against tennis and skiing. She successfully graduated from the ski trade school in Stams and trained as a police officer .
Ascent
She celebrated her first major success in 2000 at the Junior World Championships in Québec by winning the bronze medal in the downhill . In the following season 2000/01 she drove for the first time in the European Cup and was able to win four slaloms. As a result, she contested her first races in the World Cup, where she collected her first World Cup points in the slalom of Sestriere as 22nd. At the World Cup slalom in Flachau she came in sensationally ninth and qualified for the World Championship in St. Anton . It was there that Sponring achieved her greatest success to date: the then 17-year-old surprisingly won the silver medal in the combination behind Martina Ertl . With twelfth place in the downhill and the second-best time in the slalom, she demonstrated her all-round qualities. A few days later, she finished twelfth in the special slalom. At the Junior World Championships in Verbier she won the gold medal in slalom and reached fourth place in the giant slalom. Equally superior, she became Austrian state champion in slalom and won the junior title in downhill. At the end of the season, the Tyrolean made the jump from the ÖSV B squad to the national team.
Right at the beginning of the next 2001/02 season , Sponring reached their first podium in the World Cup. In the slalom in Copper Mountain she only had to admit defeat to the French Laure Pequegnot by 0.17 seconds. The new ski talent has already been celebrated in the media, but it shouldn't go on like this. In six of the nine slaloms of the season she did not see the finish line - after some great interim times - but she was still one of the great hopes for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City . But even there she fell in the combined slalom (after the first round she performed 0.63 seconds ahead of the eventual Olympic champion Janica Kostelić ) and in the special slalom.
Failures and injuries
In the following season, 2002/03 , things didn't go any better either, and twelfth place in the Slalom in Maribor was her best place in the World Cup winter. At the World Championships in St. Moritz 2003, Sponring was surprisingly allowed to start in the downhill - after very good training performance - and justified their position with eighth place. In the combination she was on the medal course after fifth place in the combination descent, but did not make it to the finish in the slalom again. At the end of February, she fell on the second downhill European Cup in Tarvisio (she had won the first downhill) and suffered a cruciate ligament and a tear in the meniscus in her right knee. So she was out for the rest of the season.
In the 2003/04 season Sponring was again in very good shape and finished seventh in the second slalom of Madonna di Campiglio to her second-best World Cup placement. But even this World Cup winter was to end prematurely: The then 20-year-old fell badly on the World Cup downhill run in St. Moritz and suffered a cruciate ligament tear and collateral ligament tear in her left knee, as well as a dislocation of her right shoulder.
Her comeback was postponed again due to another injury ( cartilage fracture on the left thigh bone ) that she sustained during the giant slalom training in Sölden in September 2004. At the end of December she started racing again and competed very successfully in several FIS and European Cup races as well as two slaloms in the World Cup , where she finished in the points in Santa Caterina with 21st place. In the European Cup, she won four races in three different disciplines and reached fourth place in the European Cup overall and downhill classification, and she was also the Austrian downhill champion.
Before the 2005/06 season , the devil of injury struck again: Sponring fell in November during giant slalom training in Sölden and this time tore the cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Comeback and resignation
She celebrated her comeback at the beginning of the 2006/07 season with 17th place in the slalom in Levi . Two podium places followed at the end of January: In San Sicario she finished third in her first World Cup Super-G with starting number 36 and confirmed this performance two days later with a third place in the second Super-G. She qualified for the Austrian Super G team at the World Championship in Åre , where she finished 16th after a serious mistake in the race. At the end of the season, she won two more European Cup downhill runs and a super combination, and by winning the downhill classification secured a permanent place for the following World Cup winter.
But also in the 2007/08 season Sponring was not spared from injuries. After she went up again with eighth place in the Super Combined in St. Anton, she suffered a torn muscle fiber in the hollow of her knee and a bone marrow edema in a fall at the FIS giant slalom in Kaprun and was out for three weeks. At the beginning of February she celebrated her comeback at the speed races in St. Moritz, and a week later she finished tenth in the Super-G in Sestriere .
In September 2008 Sponring was injured again: she fell during giant slalom training in Zermatt and sustained a strained cruciate ligament and a broken cartilage. Thus, she could not contest World Cup races in the 2008/09 season .
Finally, on January 8, 2009, at the age of 25, she announced her retirement from alpine ski racing. The reason she cited was a lack of motivation after the serious knee injury in September. Sponring competed in 65 World Cup races from December 2000 to March 2008 and achieved three podium places. She suffered a total of six serious injuries within five and a half years.
successes
Olympic games
- Salt Lake City 2002 : eliminated in slalom and combined
World championships
- St. Anton 2001 : 2nd combination, 12th slalom
- St. Moritz 2003 : 8th descent
- Åre 2007 : 16th Super-G
Junior World Championships
- Québec 2000 : 3rd downhill, 8th slalom
- Verbier 2001 : 1st slalom, 4th giant slalom
- Tarvisio 2002 : 9th slalom, 23rd giant slalom
World cup
- 3 podium places, another 5 places in the top ten
European Cup
- 2000/01 season : 6th overall ranking, 3rd slalom ranking
- 2004/05 season : 4th overall ranking, 4th downhill ranking, 6th Super-G ranking
- 2006/07 season : 6th overall ranking, 1st downhill ranking, 3rd super combination ranking
- 14 podium places, including 12 victories:
| date | place | country | discipline |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 20, 2001 | Elbigenalp | Austria | slalom |
| January 22, 2001 | Ravascletto | Italy | slalom |
| January 23, 2001 | Ravascletto | Italy | slalom |
| February 26, 2001 | Rogla | Slovenia | slalom |
| February 19, 2003 | Tarvisio | Italy | Departure |
| February 2, 2005 | Reinswald | Italy | Departure |
| February 6, 2005 | Castelrotto | Italy | Super G |
| March 4, 2005 | Abetone | Italy | Giant slalom |
| March 9, 2005 | Roccaraso | Italy | Departure |
| March 16, 2007 | Santa Caterina | Italy | Departure |
| March 16, 2007 | Santa Caterina | Italy | Super combination |
| March 17, 2007 | Santa Caterina | Italy | Departure |
More Achievements
- 3 times Austrian national champion (combination 2000 , slalom 2001 , downhill 2005 )
- 5 times Austrian youth state champion (Downhill 2000, 2001, 2002, Super-G 2000, Giant Slalom 2000)
- 10 victories in FIS races (4 × slalom, 3 × giant slalom, 3 × Super-G)
Awards (excerpt)
Web links
- Christine Sponring Fanpage
- Christine Sponring in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
- Christine Sponring in the database of Ski-DB (English)
- Christine Sponring in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
literature
- Austrian Ski (ed.): Austrian ski stars of A-Z . Innsbruck 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , pp. 421-422.
Individual evidence
- ↑ It's over at 25. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. sport.orf.at, January 8, 2009
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sponring, Christine |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian ski racer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 22, 1983 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Schwaz , Austria |