Deborah Compagnoni

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Deborah Compagnoni Alpine skiing
Deborah Compagnoni cropped.jpg
nation ItalyItaly Italy
birthday 4th June 1970 (age 50)
place of birth Bormio , Italy
size 165 cm
Weight 62 kg
Career
discipline Downhill , super-G ,
giant slalom , slalom
society GS Forestale
status resigned
End of career March 24, 1999
Medal table
Olympic medals 3 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
World Cup medals 3 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
JWM medals 1 × gold 0 × silver 2 × bronze
Olympic rings winter Olympics
gold Albertville 1992 Super G
gold Lillehammer 1994 Giant slalom
gold Nagano 1998 Giant slalom
silver Nagano 1998 slalom
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
gold Sierra Nevada 1996 Giant slalom
gold Sestriere 1997 Giant slalom
gold Sestriere 1997 slalom
FIS Alpine Ski Junior World Championships
bronze Bad Kleinkirchheim 1986 Departure
gold Sälen / Hemsedal 1987 Giant slalom
bronze Sälen / Hemsedal 1987 Departure
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut November 28, 1987
 Individual world cup victories 16
 Overall World Cup 4. ( 1996/97 , 1997/98 )
 Downhill World Cup 22. ( 1987/88 )
 Super G World Cup 6. ( 1992/93 )
 Giant Slalom World Cup 1. ( 1996/97 )
 Slalom World Cup 3. (1996/97)
 Combination World Cup 12. ( 1993/94 )
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Super G 2 0 1
 Giant slalom 13 10 8th
 slalom 1 5 4th
 

Deborah Compagnoni (born June 4, 1970 in Bormio , Province of Sondrio ) is a former Italian ski racer . She is a three-time Olympic champion , three-time world champion and once won the giant slalom World Cup. Thus she is by far the most successful Italian ski racer of the 1990s. She is married to the textile entrepreneur Alessandro Benetton .

biography

Junior period

Compagnoni came into contact with skiing at an early age; Father Giorgio and Uncle Giuseppe were already part of the Italian ski team in the early 1970s, but had only moderate success. Her parents' hotel in Santa Caterina , the “Baita Fiorita di Deborah”, hosted the Swiss women's national team during the 1985 World Ski Championships ; the then 14-year-old Compagnoni served the Swiss ski stars such as Erika Hess , Michela Figini and Maria Walliser the meals.

Compagnoni first attracted attention at the 1986 Junior World Championships in Bad Kleinkirchheim when she came third in the giant slalom . A year later, at the Junior World Championships in 1987 in Hemsedal and Sälen , she won gold in the giant slalom and bronze in the downhill . In Italy it is common for top athletes to be employed pro forma by the customs authorities or the police, in Compagnoni's case it was the Guardia di Finanza .

Health setbacks

On November 28, 1987 Compagnoni first took part in a World Cup race; at the Super-G in Sestriere , she immediately reached fifth place. A week later, she caused another sensation with a fourth place on the downhill in Val-d'Isère . But on January 14, 1988 she tore a cruciate ligament on the descent in Zinal , which meant that the season that had started so hopefully was already over.

Since the therapy proved to be very laborious and the knee had to be operated on again a year and a half after the accident, Compagnoni was unable to perform almost the entire season 1988/89. It only started at the Junior World Championships in Aleyska (USA). In December 1990, her father had to take her to the hospital in Sondrio as an emergency . She only barely survived a bowel entanglement and the resulting rupture of the appendix .

It was not until March 1991 that she took part in a World Cup race again and - although she had hardly been able to train - reached fourth place in the giant slalom in Vail . In the summer of 1991 she was able to do regular training again, including a long time with Alberto Tomba . The Italian gossip press immediately turned this collaboration into a romance.

At the top of the world

During the 1991/92 season Compagnoni was able to achieve good results on a regular basis and won their first World Cup race on January 26, 1992, the Super-G in Morzine . At the 1992 Winter Olympics she won the gold medal in Méribel in the same discipline. But the triumph was immediately followed by a setback. The following day she had a bad fall in the giant slalom; Again she suffered a severe knee ligament injury and the season was again prematurely over. In 1992/93 Compagnoni again achieved several podiums and one victory. From now on she refrained from all downhill races in order to keep the risk of injury as low as possible. The 1993 World Ski Championships in Morioka , Japan, ended rather disappointingly with fifth place in the Super-G.

The winter of 1993/94 was again very successful for Compagnoni. With three wins she was the third best giant slalom rider in the world at the end of the season. At the 1994 Winter Olympics , she won her second Olympic gold medal on Hafjell near Lillehammer , this time in the giant slalom. She dedicated the victory to the Austrian Ulrike Maier , who had died of serious injuries four weeks earlier after falling down on the Garmisch-Partenkirchen descent . Compagnoni was deeply touched by this tragic event, as the younger brother of her boyfriend at the time also had a fatal accident in an FIS race in 1991 .

Again problems

Compagnoni was only able to tackle the 1994/95 season with a delay of two months due to a kidney infection. In addition, she complained of back pain throughout the winter. Despite these problems, she was still able to win a World Cup giant slalom. The preparation for the 1995/96 season was not ideal either. During the summer training camp in Chile , Compagnoni suffered another ligament rupture after a serious fall. Another operation was necessary. As a further precautionary measure, she decided not to participate in Super-G races in the future and to concentrate only on the relatively harmless disciplines of giant slalom and slalom .

Second career highlight

Due to the necessary therapies during convalescence , the start of the season was delayed until January 1996. With several good results, however, she was able to establish herself at the top of the world immediately. At the highlight of the season, the 1996 World Ski Championships in the Spanish Sierra Nevada , she became the first giant slalom world champion. She could easily put up with the failure in the first run of the slalom in view of the past events.

For the 1996/97 season, training was geared entirely towards lower physical endurance. Like her role model Alberto Tomba, she had her own staff around her and mostly trained separately from the Italian national team. Compagnoni's brother Juri worked as a ski tester and helped her to get used to the then new, tailored carving skis .

On December 29, 1996 Compagnoni won a slalom for the first time in Semmering . The fact that she was now among the best in the world in this discipline was confirmed by winning the gold medal at the 1997 World Ski Championships in Sestriere , although she also benefited from the failures of the favorites Claudia Riegler and Pernilla Wiberg . She confidently defended the world title in giant slalom. At the end of this successful winter, she was able to celebrate winning the giant slalom World Cup thanks to four victories.

After the 1997/98 season got off to a fairly successful start, it had a slight dip in form. But just in time for the big event, the 1998 Winter Olympics , Compagnoni turned it up again. She won the silver medal in the slalom, and she won the giant slalom with a margin of more than two seconds over Alexandra Meissnitzer . With her third Olympic gold medal in a row, Compagnoni finally became a superstar in Italy. In the Giant Slalom World Cup, however, she had to let Martina Ertl pass her shortly before the end of the season .

resignation

The preparation for the 1998/99 season was not optimal due to permanent back pain. During the winter, knee problems also made themselves felt again. Under these conditions, positions 7 (in giant slalom) and 8 (in slalom) at the 1999 World Ski Championships turned out to be remarkably good. In March 1999 Compagnoni listened to the advice of her doctors and withdrew from top-class sport.

In autumn 2000 she married Alessandro Benetton from the famous Benetton textile dynasty . In the same year their first of three children was born. Even before her resignation, Compagnoni had a special relationship with fashion; she designed racing suits and worked as a model when there was no racing. She is also involved in the social field: As part of anti-smoking campaigns, she visits schools and supports organizations that work against the oppression of women and cancer research.

Before the start of the World Ski Championships in 2005 , the slope in the immediate vicinity of her parents' hotel in Santa Caterina , on which the women's races took place, was christened “Deborah Compagnoni”.

successes

Olympic games

World championships

World Cup ratings

Deborah Compagnoni once won the giant slalom discipline.

season total Departure Super G Giant slalom slalom combination
space Points space Points space Points space Points space Points space Points
1987/88 40. 24 22nd 12 17th 12 - - - - - -
1988/89 No results due to injury
1989/90 52. 19th - - 22nd 9 24. 10 - - - -
1990/91 57. 12 - - - - 17th 12 - - - -
1991/92 11. 590 - - 15th 126 4th 344 19th 120 - -
1992/93 11. 535 - - 6th 230 8th. 200 17th 105 - -
1993/94 6th 841 - - 18th 91 3. 515 12. 195 12. 40
1994/95 12. 524 - - 25th 74 5. 325 14th 125 - -
1995/96 22nd 346 - - - - 6th 280 30th 66 - -
1996/97 4th 967 - - - - 1. 560 3. 407 - -
1997/98 4th 912 - - - - 2. 565 6th 304 - -
1998/99 22nd 347 - - - - 9. 256 23. 91 - -

World Cup victories

In total, Deborah Compagnoni has won 16 World Cup races:

date place country discipline
January 26, 1992 Morzine France Super G
March 7, 1993 Morzine France Super G
5th December 1993 Tignes France Giant slalom
December 11, 1993 Veysonnaz Switzerland Giant slalom
5th January 1994 Morzine France Giant slalom
January 16, 1994 Cortina d'Ampezzo Italy Giant slalom
January 8, 1995 House in the Ennstal Austria Giant slalom
March 2, 1996 Narvik Norway Giant slalom
December 29, 1996 Semmering Austria slalom
January 17, 1997 Zwiesel Germany Giant slalom
January 18, 1997 Zwiesel Germany Giant slalom
January 26, 1997 Cortina d'Ampezzo Italy Giant slalom
October 25, 1997 Tignes France Giant slalom
November 21, 1997 Park City United States Giant slalom
December 19, 1997 Val d'Isère France Giant slalom
January 6, 1998 Bormio Italy Giant slalom

Junior World Championships

Italian championships

Deborah Compagnoni won a total of seven Italian championship titles :

  • Slalom (1): 1989
  • Giant slalom (5): 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1997
  • Super-G (1): 1991

Awards

source

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Compagnoni, Deborah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th June 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Bormio , Italy