Maria Höfl-Riesch

Maria Höfl-Riesch
Maria Höfl-Riesch (2017)
nation	Germany
birthday	24th November 1984 (age 35)
place of birth	Garmisch-Partenkirchen , Germany
size	182 cm
Weight	78 kg
job	Customs officer
Career
discipline	Downhill , Super-G , giant slalom , slalom , combination
society	Partenkirchen ski club
National squad	since 2001
status	resigned
End of career	March 20, 2014
Medal table
Olympic games 3 × 1 × 0 × World championships 2 × 0 × 4 × Junior World Championship 5 × 2 × 2 ×
winter Olympics gold Vancouver 2010 Super combination gold Vancouver 2010 slalom gold Sochi 2014 Super combination silver Sochi 2014 Super G  Alpine World Ski Championships gold Val d'Isère 2009 slalom bronze Garmisch-Partenk. 2011 Departure bronze Garmisch-Partenk. 2011 Super G gold Schladming 2013 Super combination bronze Schladming 2013 Departure bronze Schladming 2013 team  Alpine Ski Junior World Championships gold Verbier 2001 combination silver Verbier 2001 Super G bronze Verbier 2001 Departure gold Tarvisio 2002 Super G silver Tarvisio 2002 slalom gold Briançonnais 2003 combination bronze Briançonnais 2003 Giant slalom gold Maribor 2004 Departure gold Maribor 2004 Giant slalom
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
Individual World Cup debut February 16, 2001  Individual world cup victories 27  Overall World Cup 1. ( 2010/11 )  Downhill World Cup 1. ( 2013/14 )  Super G World Cup 1. ( 2007/08 )  Giant Slalom World Cup 6. ( 2012/13 )  Slalom World Cup 1. ( 2008/09 , 2009/10)  Combination World Cup 1. (2007/08)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Departure 11 5 10  Super G 3 8th 5  Giant slalom 0 2 2  slalom 9 9 7th  combination 4th 3 3  team 1 0 0

Maria Höfl-Riesch (2013)

Maria Höfl-Riesch (* 24. November 1984 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen as Maria Riesch ) is a former German alpine skier . She was considered an all-rounder and was one of the most successful athletes in her active time. Her greatest successes include three Olympic victories at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and 2014 in Sochi , winning the overall ranking of the Alpine Ski World Cup in the 2010/11 season and a gold medal each at the 2009 and 2013 World Championships . Added to this is the five-time win of a World Cup discipline and five junior world championship titles. She was able to win world cup races in four out of five disciplines. In the list of alpine skiing Olympic champions she is the best placed in Germany, in the best list of the women's world cup she is the second best German after Katja Seizinger with 27 victories. With six podium placements after Christl Cranz and Rosi Mittermaier, she takes third place among the German World Cup participants .

biography

Junior period

Maria Riesch started skiing at the age of three. Two years later she became a member of the Partenkirchen ski club . After her first successes in regional children's races, she finished second in the 1998/99 season at the German Schoolchildren's Championships. It was here that the DSV coaches became aware of Riesch and included them in the association's C / D squad the following season. As a 15 year old, she competed in her first FIS race in December 1999 .

Her first appearance in the European Cup followed just three months later and in March 2000 she won an FIS race for the first time. At the Junior World Championships in Verbier in 2001 , Riesch won the gold medal in the combination , the silver medal in the Super-G and the bronze medal in the downhill . Shortly afterwards, on February 16, 2001, she made her debut in the World Cup and finished 20th in the Super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. At the end of the season, she was German champion in the downhill and super-G.

In the 2001/02 season Riesch was only used sporadically in the World Cup, the best result was again a 20th place. The main focus was on the European Cup: With five victories and three additional podium places, she won both the overall standings and the downhill discipline standings. Riesch won the gold medal in the Super-G and the silver medal in the slalom at the Junior World Championship in 2002 . She also defended the German downhill championship title. In 2002 she was also awarded the Bavarian Sports Prize in the “Outstanding Young Athlete” category.

Riesch came back to the World Cup more often in the 2002/03 season , where she was often eliminated, especially at the beginning of winter. On December 22nd, 2002 in Lenzerheide she achieved the first World Cup podium in combination with 3rd place. In March 2003 she also made it into the top ten for the first time in individual races. She was also successful at the 2003 Junior World Championships in Serre Chevalier. For the second time she was junior world champion in the combination, in addition there was the bronze medal in the giant slalom .

Rise to the top of the world and injury concerns

After graduating from high school in the summer of 2003, Riesch was now able to concentrate fully on skiing. During the 2003/04 season , she was able to significantly reduce her failure rate. It was regularly classified among the top ten and established itself among the best in the world. On January 30, 2004 Riesch celebrated her first World Cup victory in the downhill run from Haus im Ennstal , two days later she doubled in the Super-G. Four weeks later she also won the Levi World Cup Slalom . In the overall World Cup ranking she took third place, confirming her all-round qualities. At the 2004 Junior World Championships in Maribor , two more gold medals were added in downhill and giant slalom.

Then she had to struggle with bad luck with injuries. In November 2004 she fractured her shoulder while exercising and had to take a break for several weeks. She started again on December 21st and finished third in the Super-G in St. Moritz . In the Super-G on January 12, 2005 at the Olimpia delle Tofane in Cortina d'Ampezzo , she fell badly and suffered a cruciate ligament rupture on her right knee. This ended the season prematurely.

The preparation for the 2005/06 season was anything but optimal. During training in New Zealand in September 2005, Riesch suffered an injury to his shin head , and a month later he broke the metacarpal bone in Sölden . As a result, the season started with rather mediocre results. On December 10, 2005 Riesch fell in the giant slalom in Aspen and sustained severe injuries to his left knee (cruciate ligament tear, meniscus damage, cartilage injuries and bone sprain). This ended her Olympic season after only six races.

World champion and double Olympic champion

In the 2006/07 season Riesch celebrated her comeback. Somewhat surprisingly, she won the first downhill run of the winter in Lake Louise . Although this was her only podium finish this season, she was able to establish herself close to the top of the world again with several top 10 results. At the 2007 World Cup , seventh place in the super combined was her best result. There was also the third German downhill championship title. In the 2007/08 season she finally found her way back to her old strength. She won two races, three times she was second and third. Their victory in the super combined at Whistler Mountain on February 24th meant the first victory for the DSV in this discipline. In addition, she won the World Cup discipline in the Super Combined and Super G. In the last race of the season she was pushed from second to third place overall by Nicole Hosp .

During the 2008/09 season Riesch was able to maintain its level of performance in the fast disciplines. In addition, she became a serial winner in slalom when she won four World Cup races in a row in this discipline. At the 2009 World Championships in Val-d'Isère , she won the gold medal in slalom and came fourth in the super combined. On March 7th, she was already the winner of the Slalom World Cup 2008/09 in Ofterschwang before the last race of the season. In the 2009/10 season Riesch achieved 14 podium places, which again resulted in second place in the overall standings. With one win and two second and two third places, she was once again the winner of the slalom discipline. The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver were the highlight of the season . At the Olympic races that took place in Whistler , Riesch won the gold medal in the super combined on February 18, after finishing eighth the day before in the downhill. Another eighth place followed on February 21 in the Super-G, on February 25 a tenth place in the giant slalom. In the slalom, she won a second gold medal on February 26th. As the first competitor at the Winter Olympics, she managed to finish in the top ten in all five alpine ski races. On April 30, 2010, Federal President Horst Köhler awarded her the Silver Laurel Leaf for her achievements . On December 19, 2010 she also received the award for Sportswoman of the Year , narrowly beating the biathlete Magdalena Neuner .

Barely won duel for the overall World Cup

She finished second in the first slalom of the 2010/11 season , followed by three more second places before her first slalom win of the season in Flachau . She was even more successful in the downhill by winning the first two races in Lake Louise . She was also victorious in the fifth downhill race in Cortina d'Ampezzo, giving her a considerable lead over Lindsey Vonn , queen of the three previous winters. In her weakest discipline to date, giant slalom, she showed a strong improvement with numerous top ten results and just before the turn of the year at Semmering , she just missed her first victory in second behind Tessa Worley .

At the world championship in her home town Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Riesch won the bronze medal in the first race, the Super-G. In the second competition, the super combination, in which she was considered the top favorite, she had to settle for 11th place with weak flu. In the downhill she won bronze again, in the slalom she was fourth. Towards the end of the World Cup season, Riesch's point lead in the overall standings decreased continuously, as Vonn started a chase to catch up. At the World Cup final in Lenzerheide , her competitor took the lead with a 27-point lead after the descent. After the Super-G failed due to the weather, Riesch finished fourth in the slalom and overtook Vonn again by three points. Since the final giant slalom had to be canceled, Riesch could no longer be caught. This made her the third German after Rosi Mittermaier ( 1975/76 ) and Katja Seizinger ( 1995/96 , 1997/98 ) to win the overall World Cup.

It was the closest decision in percentage terms in the World Cup so far , even closer than the two points between Benjamin Raich and Aksel Lund Svindal in the 2008/2009 season, as Höfl-Riesch achieved their overall victory with 1,728 points, Svindal in 2009 with 1,009 points. At the aforementioned season finale on March 20, 2011, she also won the team competition against Italy and Austria, which is only part of the Nations Cup, in the German team .

Another world title

Höfl-Riesch with her husband Marcus Höfl (2014)

In spring 2010 Riesch and her manager Marcus Höfl announced that they were in a relationship. On April 14, 2011 the civil wedding took place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and on April 16 the church wedding in Going am Wilden Kaiser . Since then it started under the name Höfl-Riesch.

In the 2011/12 season Höfl-Riesch was unable to maintain the very high level of the pre-winter season. Especially at the beginning she showed unusual weaknesses, in addition, she had to record four failures in her previous parade discipline slalom. The first win of the season took until the end of January 2012 (super combination in St. Moritz). In Krasnaya Polyana she then won the “dress rehearsal” of the 2014 Olympic downhill run. In Åre, she won another slalom. At the end of the season she was third overall.

Höfl-Riesch won the Levi slalom at the beginning of the 2012/13 season , but only achieved another podium place in the following three months. Although she established herself in second place in the overall standings, she quickly lost ground to the outstanding Tina Maze and was already more than 800 points behind by the end of January. After she was eliminated in a World Cup slalom twice in a row shortly before the start of the 2013 World Championships , she became world champion in the super combined on February 8, 2013 in Schladming ahead of Maze. Two days later she won the bronze medal in the downhill, like two years earlier in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. With the team, it was also enough for bronze on February 12, 2013. In the last World Cup races after the World Championship, there were three podium places. In the final round of the World Cup season, she was second, 1,313 points behind Tina Maze.

Third Olympic victory and resignation

The 2013/14 season went much better for her with a total of nine podium places, including three victories in the downhill. With third place on the downhill in Altenmarkt , Höfl-Riesch was the first runner to achieve 25 podium positions in both the slalom and the downhill in World Cup races. At the same time, she overtook Katja Seizinger as the best German runner in these statistics with a total of 77 podium places . At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, she was the flag bearer of the German team at the opening ceremony . She was Olympic champion in the super combined, in the super G she won the silver medal and in the slalom she was fourth. In the overall World Cup ranking she was clearly ahead of the Olympic Games; after that, Anna Fenninger moved closer and closer to her with top places in downhill, super-G and giant slalom, so that a duel between the two runners, who had each traveled home from Sochi with a gold and a silver medal, began for the World Cup final. On March 12, 2014, Höfl-Riesch secured the small crystal ball in the Downhill World Cup despite a serious fall in the last downhill of the season in Lenzerheide . Because of the injuries sustained in this fall, she had to end the season prematurely and give up the fight for the overall World Cup standings. On March 20, 2014, she announced the end of her career. On December 21, 2014, she was voted Sportswoman of the Year again. On May 8, 2014, Federal President Joachim Gauck awarded her the Silver Laurel Leaf for her performance at the Olympic Games .

From 2008 to 2014, i.e. for seven consecutive years, Höfl-Riesch always came in the top three of the overall World Cup ranking, which apart from her only Gustav Thöni , Pirmin Zurbriggen , Katja Seizinger , Benjamin Raich and Marcel Hirscher have achieved so far .

successes

Olympic games

• Vancouver 2010 : 1st slalom, 1st super combination, 8th downhill, 8th super-G, 10th giant slalom
• Sochi 2014 : 1st super combination, 2nd super G, 4th slalom, 13th descent

World championships

• St. Moritz 2003 : 5th combination, 17th descent
• Åre 2007 : 7th Super Combined, 9th Downhill, 10th Super-G, 23rd Giant Slalom
• Val-d'Isère 2009 : 1st slalom, 4th super combination, 8th super-G, 10th descent, 28th giant slalom
• Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2011 : 3rd downhill, 3rd super-G, 4th slalom, 11th super combination
• Schladming 2013 : 1st super combination, 3rd downhill, 3rd team competition, 9th giant slalom

World Cup ratings

Höfl-Riesch won five discipline rankings in the World Cup: Combination and Super-G in the 2007/08 season, slalom in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons and downhill in the 2013/14 season. In the 2010/11 season she also won the overall World Cup.

season	total		Departure		Super G		Giant slalom		slalom		combination		City Event *
	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points
2000/01	109.	11	-	-	42.	11	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2001/02	96.	21st	-	-	-	-	50.	11	46.	10	-	-	-	-
2002/03	32.	232	14th	115	37.	24	42.	11	40.	22nd	3.	60	-	-
2003/04	3.	977	7th	283	5.	338	18th	111	9.	245	-	-	-	-
2004/05	43.	168	27.	48	26th	60	32.	48	44.	12	-	-	-	-
2005/06	69.	62	44.	29	35.	26th	49.	7th	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006/07	14th	487	7th	225	18th	118	22nd	60	25th	72	-	-	-	-
2007/08	3.	1146	9.	224	1.	374	25th	39	8th.	294	1.	260	-	-
2008/09	2.	1424	3.	292	10.	171	15th	141	1.	670	4th	150	-	-
2009/10	2.	1516	2.	556	9.	148	8th.	203	1.	493	5.	80	-	-
2010/11	1.	1728	2.	457	2.	389	8th.	192	3.	470	3.	205	9.	15th
2011/12	3.	1227	4th	379	6th	225	16.	133	7th	330	4th	110	4th	50
2012/13	2.	1101	3.	272	5.	251	6th	213	9.	315	9.	50	15th	15th
2013/14	2.	1180	1.	504	5.	216	14th	166	5.	235	3.	60	-	-

* The City Event points were counted for the Slalom World Cup in the 2012/13 season.

World Cup victories

Höfl-Riesch achieved 81 podium places in individual races, including 27 victories:

date	place	country	discipline
January 30, 2004	House in the Ennstal	Austria	Departure
February 1, 2004	House in the Ennstal	Austria	Super G
February 29, 2004	Levi	Finland	slalom
December 1, 2006	Lake Louise	Canada	Departure
January 21, 2008	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Italy	Super G
February 24, 2008	Whistler	Canada	Super combination
December 14, 2008	La Molina	Spain	slalom
December 29, 2008	Semmering	Austria	slalom
January 4, 2009	Zagreb	Croatia	slalom
January 11, 2009	Maribor	Slovenia	slalom
February 20, 2009	Tarvisio	Italy	Super combination
November 14, 2009	Levi	Finland	slalom
January 30, 2010	St. Moritz	Switzerland	Departure
March 10, 2010	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Germany	Departure
December 3, 2010	Lake Louise	Canada	Departure
4th December 2010	Lake Louise	Canada	Departure
January 11, 2011	Flachau	Austria	slalom
January 22, 2011	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Italy	Departure
February 25, 2011	Are	Sweden	Super combination
February 27, 2011	Are	Sweden	Super G
January 29, 2012	St. Moritz	Switzerland	Super combination
February 18, 2012	Krasnaya Polyana	Russia	Departure
March 10, 2012	Are	Sweden	slalom
November 10, 2012	Levi	Finland	slalom
December 6, 2013	Lake Louise	Canada	Departure
December 7, 2013	Lake Louise	Canada	Departure
January 24, 2014	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Italy	Departure

In addition, there is a victory in team competitions .

European Cup

• Season 2001/02 : overall winner, the first downhill standings, 7th Super-G standings, eighth slalom standings, 9. Giant Slalom Score
• 8 podium places, including 5 wins

Junior World Championships

• Québec 2000 : 24th slalom, 37th giant slalom
• Verbier 2001 : 1st combination, 2nd Super-G, 3rd downhill, 13th giant slalom, 14th slalom
• Tarvisio 2002 : 1st Super-G, 2nd slalom, 6th descent
• Puy Saint-Vincent 2003 : 1st combination, 3rd giant slalom, 4th descent, 5th slalom
• Maribor 2004 : 1st descent, 1st giant slalom

German championships

Höfl-Riesch is five-time German champion :

• Downhill ( 2001 , 2002 and 2007 )
• Super-G (2001 and 2004 )

Personal

Höfl-Riesch is a niece of the Olympic bobsleigh champion Wolfgang Zimmerer . As a student she went to the same class as Felix Neureuther . In 2004 she made a guest appearance in an episode of the TV soap opera Marienhof . In 2008 she played herself in episode 666 of the telenovela Storm of Love . From 2006 to 2008 she was in a relationship with the ice hockey player Marco Ludwig .

Her father Siegfried sits on the board of directors of 1. FC Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where her brother Matthias also plays football. Her younger sister Susanne Riesch was also a ski racer.

During her skiing career, Höfl-Riesch became a member of the customs ski team as chief sergeant in the Federal Customs Administration .

In 2010 Maria Höfl-Riesch and Marcus Höfl became a couple. They married on April 14, 2011. Marcus Höfl is also the manager of the former ski racer.

Höfl-Riesch and her husband brought their own winter collection onto the market. In October 2012, Höfl-Riesch published her autobiography, which is entitled Straight ahead: Ups and downs in my life . From 2014 to 2019 she worked as a ski expert at ARD . Maria Höfl-Riesch supports the organizations Ein Herz für Kinder and Innocence in Danger as well as Laureus Sport for Good .

Höfl-Riesch has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the DFL Foundation since 2013 . She presented the trophy of the competition as part of the Supercup, which was under the motto "Top sport connects".

Awards

• 2004: Junior Sportswoman of the Year
• 2009: 3rd place in the election for Sportswoman of the Year
• 2009: Winter Star of the Bavarian Radio in the category Best Winter Sportswoman
• 2010: Silver bay leaf , awarded by Federal President Horst Köhler
• 2010: Sportswoman of the year
• 2011: 3rd place in the election for Sportswoman of the Year
• 2013: 3rd place in the election for Sportswoman of the Year
• 2014: Sportswoman of the year
• 2014: Silver bay leaf, awarded by Federal President Joachim Gauck
• 2015: Medal for special services to Bavaria in a United Europe
• 2018: Bavarian Sports Prize of the Century from the Bavarian Prime Minister

literature

• Maria Höfl-Riesch, Fred Selig: Straight ahead. Ups and downs of my life . Malik, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-89029-424-7 .

Web links

Commons : Maria Höfl-Riesch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

 Wikinews: Maria Höfl-Riesch  - in the news

• Maria Höfl-Riesch in the database of the International Ski Association (English)
• Maria Höfl-Riesch in the database of Ski-DB (English)
• Official website
• Portrait of Maria Riesch on skiinfo.de
• Literature by and about Maria Höfl-Riesch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Maria Höfl-Riesch in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sensation by Maria Riesch - downhill victory in house. (No longer available online.) Skiinfo.de, January 30, 2004, archived from the original on December 28, 2014 ; Retrieved March 19, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Shoulder injury forces to take a break: German Maria Riesch cancels USA race. news.at, November 23, 2004, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
3. ^ WM-Aus for Maria Riesch: Cruciate ligament tear. faz.net , January 12, 2005, accessed March 19, 2012 . 
4. ↑ Olympic season for German Maria Riesch is over: Cruciate ligament tear at Aspen-RTL. news.at, December 11, 2005, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Ofterschwang 2009: Two winners and one historic triumph. (No longer available online.) Skiinfo.de, March 10, 2009, archived from the original on July 14, 2012 ; Retrieved March 19, 2012 . 
6. ↑ Riesch as the first Alpine five times in the top 10. Rheinische Post , February 28, 2010, accessed on March 3, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Olympic champion honored with a silver bay leaf. Focus, April 30, 2010, accessed May 17, 2010 . 
8. ↑ Maria Riesch and Sebastian Vettel triumph. Spiegel Online , December 19, 2010, accessed March 19, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Maria Riesch missed a medal in the super combination. Stern , February 11, 2011, accessed March 19, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Ski: Riesch is the overall World Cup winner. derStandard.at , March 19, 2011, accessed on March 19, 2011 . 
11. ↑ Riesch wants to keep winning - as Höfl-Riesch. Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 13, 2011, archived from the original on April 17, 2011 ; Retrieved April 14, 2011 . 
12. ↑ Höfl-Riesch passes Seizinger FAZ.net, January 11, 2014, accessed on January 12, 2014
13. ↑ Pointy screams! Maria Höfl-Riesch races in Fangzaun , Focus Online , from March 12, 2014
14. ^ Ski star Höfl-Riesch retires , Spiegel Online from March 20, 2014
15. ↑ DFB-Elf, Höfl-Riesch and Harting are athletes of the year. Zeit Online , December 21, 2014, accessed January 6, 2015 . 
16. ↑ Awarding of the silver bay leaf. The Federal President , May 5, 2014, accessed on March 15, 2020 . 
17. ↑ Riesch new FC President? Soccer suburb, January 25, 2012, accessed February 7, 2012 . 
18. ↑ From the ski slope to the economy. Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 5, 2010, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
19. ↑ Maria Höfl-Riesch on the marriage crisis: "Had a difficult phase". Retrieved April 17, 2018 . 
20. ↑ Our daily book for the fair: Spasmodic boiled up. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 11, 2012, accessed on October 13, 2012 . 
21. ↑ Maria Höfl-Riesch: She stops working as an expert at ARD. Stern , July 1, 2019, accessed November 19, 2019 . 
22. ↑ A heart for children becomes a royal gala. Berliner Morgenpost , December 4, 2014, accessed on November 19, 2019 . 
23. ↑ Maria Höfl-Riesch celebrated a fairytale wedding in white. Zeit Online , April 17, 2011, accessed November 19, 2019 . 
24. ↑ Laureus: Maria Höfl-Riesch participates. motorsport-total.com, April 25, 2019, accessed November 19, 2019 . 
25. ↑ Maria Höfl-Riesch. DFL Foundation, accessed on January 24, 2020 . 
26. ↑ Supercup 2019: Maria Höfl-Riesch presents trophy. DFL Foundation, August 1, 2019, accessed on January 24, 2020 .