Elena Runggaldier grew up in St. Christina in Val Gardena and has a commercial high school diploma (Abitur), but she dropped out of the following architecture studies in order to devote herself fully to a sports career. She was discovered by her trainer Romed Moroder at the age of 12 when she was still interested in cross-country skiing. She is currently starting for the GS Fiamme Gialle. She competed in her first FIS competitions since summer 2003. In January 2005 she made her debut in the Ski Jumping Continental Cup and was 23rd in her first competition in Planica , winning her first points. In February Runggaldier jumped eighth in Baiersbronn for the first time among the top ten. Results between 10th and 25th place were normal for the Italian. At the Junior World Championships 2006 in Kranj , she won the bronze medal behind Juliane Seyfarth and Atsuko Tanaka . A few days later, she took fourth place in a Continental Cup competition in Baiersbronn. It was her best result in the series, which she was only able to achieve again in 2008 in Liberec . The Junior World Championships 2007 in Tarvisio brought a ninth place, in 2008 in Zakopane she won the silver medal behind Jacqueline Seifriedsberger . With 13th place in Štrbské Pleso 2009 , the Italian achieved her worst Junior World Championship result. Then Runggaldier started at the first Nordic World Ski Championships in Liberec, where women ski jumping was carried out. As 32nd, however, she just missed qualifying for the finals. After her performance in the Continental Cup varied greatly in the 2009/10 season, she won the gold medal at the 2010 Junior World Championships in Hinterzarten . She also won the title at the 2011 Winter Universiade in Erzurum , Turkey . At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oslo in 2011 , she finished second behind Daniela Iraschko . The Val Gardena medal was historic: an athlete from the Italian Winter Sports Association had never won a medal at a ski jumping World Cup.
Runggaldier started on December 3, 2011 in Lillehammer at the first World Cup competition in the history of women's ski jumping, which was introduced in the 2011/12 season . In this competition she finished 24th. Her best placement in the premiere season was 17th in Hinzenbach . In the overall World Cup she was 31st. In the summer of 2012, she started at the Summer Grand Prix, which was also newly introduced for women . At the first women's Grand Prix competition on August 15, 2013 in Courchevel , she finished 35th. Just two days later, she took 14th her first Grand Prix points at the competition in Hinterzarten . At the start of the 2012/13 World Cup season in Lillehammer, she jumped on the podium in the mixed team competition together with Andrea Morassi , Evelyn Insam and Sebastian Colloredo as third behind Norway and Japan. During the season she achieved her first top ten placements in individual World Cup competitions. In Sapporo and Oslo , she finished fifth. At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 in Val di Fiemme , she finished twelfth in the individual and seventh place in the mixed team competition.
At the Olympic premiere of women's ski jumping in Sochi in 2014 , she finished 29th. At the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2015 in Falun , she finished 30th in the individual and ninth place in the mixed team competition. After she did not get beyond 13th place in individual World Cup competitions in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons, she was able to achieve better performances again in the 2015/16 season . She achieved three top 10 placements with eighth place as the best result. In the overall standings she landed in 16th place with 284 points and thus achieved her best result in the overall World Cup to date.
At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2017 in Lahti , Runggaldier took 18th place in the individual and seventh place in the mixed team competition. In the 2016/17 season she was 21st in the overall World Cup with 169 points. In the 2017/18 season she only achieved one World Cup placement among the top 20, otherwise she ended up in places between 20 and 40. In February 2018, she took part in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang for the second time . In the individual competition on the normal hill , she finished 33rd out of 35 participants.
Italy
Liberec
