Claudia Riegler (snowboarder)

Claudia Riegler
nation	Austria
birthday	7th July 1973
place of birth	Vienna
size	168 cm
Weight	65 kg
Career
society	USC Flachau
National squad	since 1994
status	active
Medal table
World Cup medals 1 × 1 × 1 ×
Snowboard world championships silver 2011 La Molina Parallel giant slalom bronze 2011 La Molina Parallel slalom gold 2015 Kreischberg Parallel giant slalom
Placements
World cup
Debut in the World Cup November 24, 1994  World Cup victories 6th  Overall World Cup 6. ( 2001/02 )  Parallel World Cup 3rd ( 2007/08 )  Snowboard cross world cup 6. (1996/97)  PGS World Cup 4. ( 1999/2000 )  GS World Cup 5. (1998/99)  PSL World Cup 4. (2001/02)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Parallel 4th 4th 14th  Otherwise. Racing disciplines 0 1 1  Snowboard cross 2 1 1
last change: April 11, 2020

Claudia Riegler (born July 7, 1973 in Vienna ) is an Austrian snowboarder . From 1994 until today she reached a total of 26 podium places and six victories in the Snowboard World Cup .

Career

World Cup debut and first successes

Riegler, who starts for the USC Flachau , made her international debut as part of the Snowboard World Cup on November 24, 1994 in Zell am See . With rank 14 in the parallel slalom and two days later with rank 16 in the giant slalom, she immediately jumped into the top twenty. In February 1995 and January 1996 she started in FIS races in Austria and Italy and convinced with mostly good top 10 placements. Back in the World Cup, she immediately achieved good placements among the top ten. At the end of the 1995/96 season, Riegler was in 25th place in the overall World Cup ranking.

In February and March 1996 Riegler started again in FIS races. In Bad Gastein , Schliersee and Innerkrems , she was on the podium at all competitions. At the beginning of the 1996/97 season she could start again well with a seventh place in Zell am See. Despite this good result, she moved again to the lower class FIS races where she was active until January 1997. Back in the World Cup, she was able to qualify for the 1997 Snowboard World Championship in San Candido with good points . There she reached seventh place in slalom, 12th in parallel slalom and 18 in snowboard cross. Despite fluctuating performance as a result, Riegler was at the end of the 1996/97 season in eighth place in the overall World Cup ranking. In the snowboard cross discipline she was even sixth. The decisive factor for this was her first World Cup podium placement in March at the snowboard cross in Grächen .

Riegler found it difficult to enter the 1997/98 season. Until January 1998 the individual results remained mediocre. It was only in Lienz that she was once again among the top ten. She then even switched to the Snowboard Continental Cup for two races , but came back to the World Cup squad. She just missed the podium as fourth in Oberstdorf . It was her best result of the season. At the Austrian Snowboard Championships in Bad Gastein in March 1998, Riegler won silver in slalom, but narrowly missed a medal in the giant slalom in fourth.

For the 1998/99 season Riegler was able to increase her performance again. However, she was still unable to achieve a World Cup victory. Even at the Snowboard World Championships 1999 in Berchtesgaden , she remained without a medal. At the end of the season she was in 11th place in the overall World Cup ranking.

First world cup victories

After initial difficulties at the beginning of the 1999/2000 season, Riegler succeeded in winning a World Cup competition for the first time on March 12, 2000 in Innichen . At the Austrian Championships in Radstadt in 2000 , she won the bronze medal in giant slalom and snowboard cross.

At the Snowboard World Championships 2001 in Madonna di Campiglio , she retired after an 18th place in the giant slalom in the later parallel slalom and was only eleventh in snowboard cross. At the end of the season, she won snowboard cross for the second time in her career in Ruka . Riegler was also able to assert himself for the first time at the Austrian championships and won the title in the parallel giant slalom in Radstadt.

After the start of the 2001/02 World Cup was rather changeable for Riegler, she started at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in the parallel giant slalom and finished in 28th place. Shortly afterwards she won the title in parallel slalom at the Austrian Championships in Bad Kleinkirchheim in 2002 . In the same discipline, she was again at the top of the podium in Ruka towards the end of the season.

European Cup and return to the World Cup

After she did not show a consistently good performance again in the 2002/03 World Cup season , she had to go home without a medal after the 2003 Snowboard World Championship at Kreischberg . Also in the following season she was unsuccessful. Only nationally, she defended her title in parallel slalom. In the 2004/05 season she switched between the World Cup, European Cup and Nor-Am-Cup, but could not seriously prevail in any of the series. At the Snowboard World Championships 2005 in Whistler, she started only in the parallel giant slalom and ended up in 15th place. At the beginning of the 2005/06 season, she moved permanently to the European Cup squad after poor initial performances. She managed a victory in Saint Petersburg .

In October 2006 Riegler came back to the World Cup squad. In December, in Bad Gastein, she only just missed the podium in fourth place. However, she could not keep this performance constant, but convinced in March with a second place in Stoneham, Canada . In January 2008 she was able to place herself in the top of the world for several competitions for the first time and was twice on the podium in La Molina . Also in March 2008 she succeeded in Valmalenco . In the 2008-09 season started Riegler with a fourth place in Landgraaf . In January she was on the podium again in Kreischberg. At the Snowboard World Championship 2009 in Gangwon, she only just missed a medal in the parallel slalom and the parallel giant slalom, but celebrated good top 10 placements.

Claudia Riegler at the World Cup in Lackenhof 2018

A year later at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver , Riegler finished seventh in the parallel giant slalom. As a result, she rarely ended up outside the top 10 ranks in the World Cup. She celebrated her greatest success so far at the 2011 Snowboard World Championship in La Molina, where she won silver in the parallel giant slalom and bronze in the parallel slalom. Riegler also won a medal at the Austrian Championships in 2011 for the first time in years and took silver in the parallel giant slalom.

Even in the 2011/12 season and the 2012/13 season , she was able to keep her performance constant despite her advanced age. Only at the Snowboard World Championship 2013 she had to admit defeat to the strong field of participants and was only ninth in the parallel giant slalom and 15th in the parallel slalom. At the end of the 2012/13 season, Riegler finished eighth in the overall parallel and parallel giant slalom rankings. In the overall parallel slalom ranking, she was twelfth. She took part in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi with the Austrian team . She celebrated her greatest success on January 23, 2015 at the home world championships by winning the gold medal in the parallel giant slalom of the snowboarding world championships on Kreischberg im Lachtal at the age of 41. On March 7th, she won the parallel competition in Moscow .

With her first World Cup victory on Austrian soil in Bad Gastein on January 8, 2019, at the age of 45, she is the oldest female snowboard World Cup winner of all time.

Claudia Riegler is the sister of Manuela Riegler , who was also active as a snowboarder.

Web links

Commons : Claudia Riegler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Claudia Riegler in the database of the International Ski Association (English)
• Claudia Riegler in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Snowboard: Claudia Riegler makes history with a home win. In: diePresse.com . January 8, 2019, accessed January 9, 2019 .