Greta Small

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Greta Small Alpine skiing
Greta Small signature.svg
nation AustraliaAustralia Australia
birthday 16th October 1995 (age 24)
place of birth Wangaratta , Victoria
size 171 cm
Weight 70 kg
Career
discipline Downhill , Super-G , giant slalom ,
slalom , combination
society Mount Hotham Racing Squad
status active
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut October 26, 2013
 Overall World Cup 110th ( 2014/15 )
 Combination World Cup 22. ( 2018/19 )
last change: March 17, 2019

Greta Small (born October 16, 1995 in Wangaratta , Victoria ) is an Australian ski racer . The four-time overall winner of the Australian New Zealand Cup competes in all disciplines and has already participated in the Olympic Games and World Ski Championships several times . She is currently the best alpine ski racer on the continent.

biography

Childhood and youth

Greta Small was born in 1995 in Wangaratta in northeastern Victoria and grew up there and in nearby Albury , New South Wales . At the age of two, she started skiing on plastic skis on Mount Buffalo . While she spent the Easter holidays in Val-d'Isère several times , she competed in her first children's races when she was ten. To finance their dream of a professional career, the Small family even sold their house in Victoria. She spent her high school in Perth , where she graduated in 2013 with a grant from the Western Australian Sports Institute (WAIS) via the distance learning program . After finishing school she moved her winter residence back to Victoria on Mount Hotham . A few winters she trained with the Benni Raich Race Center in the Tyrolean Pitztal . Even before her 18th birthday, she was described as the greatest Australian ski hope since world champion Zali Steggall . Small names the latter as one of her great role models.

Success in the Australian New Zealand Cup

Small had her first international appearances in the winter of 2010/11, first in FIS races and then at the Junior World Championship in Crans-Montana . As the best result she achieved 31st place in the Super-G . At the end of March she won the British Downhill Championships , which, according to her website, became the world's youngest winner of state championships in this discipline. In August 2011, she competed in the Australian New Zealand Cup (ANC) for the first time before her 16th birthday . In the very first giant slalom on her home mountain, Mount Hotham, she took second place. After that, with the exception of one race, she was always among the top ten and after three and a half weeks - without a race win - she was the overall winner. In the discipline ratings, too, she was placed in the top five. She also won her first two Australian championship titles in giant slalom and slalom . Because of these achievements, she was accepted into the Australian national team in the fall.

In January 2012 she led the Australian team as the flag bearer to the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck . There she finished seventh in Super-G and Slalom and two 13th places in Super Combined and Giant Slalom. As a result, she started in the European Cup for the first time. She finished the Junior World Championship in Roccaraso with positions eleven (combination), 16 (super-G), 27 (slalom) and 56 (giant slalom). The following August, she won the Australian New Zealand Cup again with three wins and a second place, having previously successfully defended her Australian championship title.

Major events and World Cup

The 17-year-old competed in the World Cup in Schladming in February 2013 , where she was the second youngest participant and achieved 25th place in the super combined as the best result. In the Australian New Zealand Cup she had to admit defeat to the Slovak Barbara Kantorová in 2013 . On October 26, 2013, she made her World Cup debut in the giant slalom in Sölden and was the first Australian since Jenny Owens to compete in a race in January 2004. She traveled to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi again as the second youngest athlete and started in all five disciplines. In the super combination, in which she was even in the lead in the meantime, she finished 15th in the end and achieved the best alpine result for an Australian in 12 years.

After winning the ANC overall ranking for the third time, she started increasingly in the World Cup in winter 2014/15. At the World Championship in Vail / Beaver Creek , she made it into the top 30 twice in five races as 18th in the combination and 29th in the Super-G. On March 1, 2015, she won 25th place in the combination for Bansko for the first time World Cup points. In her third and last JWM participation in Hafjell, she classified herself in all competitions and again achieved eleventh place in the combination as the best result. Towards the end of the season, she tore a cruciate ligament in a Far East Cup giant slalom in Shigakogen and had to undergo two operations during the year. It was not until February 2016 that she was able to intervene again in international racing.

After a successful comeback and her fourth victory in the ANC, she contested several Far East Cup and FIS races with a view to the World Championship in St. Moritz . In January 2017, she suffered another knee injury just a few weeks before the start of the World Cup. In a fall in an FEC slalom in Yongpyong , she suffered a partial tear in the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee and then missed the major event in Switzerland.

At the end of January 2018, with 29th place in the combination of Lenzerheide, she achieved her second place among the top 30, but did not win any World Cup points due to the too large time gap. At the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang , she started both in the speed disciplines and in the combination. She achieved her best result with a 20th downhill rank, in the combination she was eliminated.

successes

winter Olympics

World championships

  • Schladming 2013 : 25th super combination, 33rd downhill, 45th giant slalom, 45th slalom
  • Vail / Beaver Creek 2015 : 18th Alpine Combined, 29th Super-G, 33rd Downhill, 36th Giant Slalom
  • Åre 2019 : 20th combination, 25th Super-G, 30th descent

World cup

  • 2 placements among the best 30

World Cup ratings

season total combination
space Points space Points
2014/15 110. 6th 25th 6th
2018/19 117. 9 22nd 9

Australia New Zealand Cup

  • Season 2011: 1st overall ranking, 2nd slalom ranking, 4th giant slalom ranking, 4th combined ranking, 5th Super-G ranking
  • 2012 season: 1st overall ranking, 1st giant slalom ranking, 2nd slalom ranking
  • 2013 season: 2nd overall ranking, 2nd slalom ranking, 2nd Super-G ranking, 2nd combined ranking
  • 2014 season: 1st overall ranking, 3rd giant slalom ranking, 3rd slalom ranking
  • Season 2016: 1st overall ranking, 2nd giant slalom ranking, 6th Super-G ranking, 6th slalom ranking
  • 17 podium places, including 6 wins:
date place country discipline
2nd August 2012 Mount Buller Australia slalom
August 15, 2012 Mount Hotham Australia Giant slalom
August 16, 2012 Mount Hotham Australia Giant slalom
18th September 2013 Mount Hutt New Zealand Super G
August 25, 2014 Mount Hotham Australia Giant slalom
August 27, 2014 Mount Hotham Australia slalom
  1. ↑ The races of the Australia New Zealand Cup are held annually in August and September (southern winter) and are already included in the coming international season.

Junior World Championships

  • Crans-Montana 2011 : 31st Super-G, 43rd slalom, 47th descent
  • Roccaraso 2012 : 11th combination, 16th Super-G, 27th slalom, 56th giant slalom
  • Québec 2013 : 18th Super-G, 20th slalom
  • Hafjell 2015 : 11th super combination, 18th descent, 18th giant slalom, 23rd slalom, 33rd super-G

More Achievements

  • 4 Australian championship titles (giant slalom 2011, 2012 and slalom 2011, 2012)
  • Victory at the 2011 British Downhill Championships
  • Victory at the New Zealand Super-G Championships in 2013
  • 2 wins in the Far East Cup
  • 12 victories in FIS races

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Greta Small - Biography. Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, accessed January 4, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c Mark Donaldson: WA teenager Greta Small on steep slope to Winter Olympics. The Courier-Mail , February 27, 2013, accessed January 4, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b 15 Minutes with alpine skier Greta Small - Our next Zali Steggal? Snowriders Australia, August 8, 2016, accessed January 4, 2018 .
  4. ↑ A kangaroo is racing on the slopes! Retrieved today , November 16, 2011, January 4, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b Competition highlights. Greta Small, accessed January 4, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Peter Gerber: No World Cup for Australia's best - Greta Small injured in the knee. skionline.ch, January 21, 2017, accessed on January 4, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Small, Greta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1995
PLACE OF BIRTH Wangaratta