Mario Reiter (ski racer)

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Mario Reiter Alpine skiing
nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday 5th November 1970 (age 49)
place of birth Rankweil , Austria
size 176 cm
Weight 78 kg
Career
discipline Slalom , giant slalom ,
combination , super-G
society Übersaxen winter sports club,
Rankweil ski club (current)
status resigned
End of career November 4, 2001
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
World Cup medals 0 × gold 1 × silver 1 × bronze
Olympic rings winter Olympics
gold Nagano 1998 combination
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
silver Sierra Nevada 1996 slalom
bronze Sestriere 1997 combination
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut December 15, 1991
 Individual world cup victories 3
 Overall World Cup 8. ( 1995/96 )
 Super G World Cup 52nd ( 1993/94 )
 Giant Slalom World Cup 6. (1995/96)
 Slalom World Cup 4. (1995/96)
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Giant slalom 1 0 2
 slalom 2 2 0
 

Mario Reiter (born November 5, 1970 in Rankweil ) is a former Austrian ski racer who was particularly successful in the technical disciplines of slalom and giant slalom as well as in the combination . In his almost ten-year career, the man from Vorarlberg achieved, among other things, an Olympic victory in alpine combined and won two medals at the World Ski Championships . In addition, he was two-time Austrian champion , once each in giant slalom and once in slalom, and celebrated three World Cup victories . Even after his professional career, he occasionally takes part in ski races as an active member of the Rankweil ski club. Reiter is married and has two sons.

biography

After the Austrian broke his leg while trying to ski for the first time at the age of five, he stopped skiing for a few years. His father finally convinced him to continue practicing this sport.

Early Years (1988-1994)

Reiter gained his first international experience with a start at the Alpine Junior Ski World Championships in 1988 , which he finished 27th in slalom . Subsequently, however, his early career was interrupted by two cruciate ligament tears , which also meant he lost his membership in the ÖSV team. Reiter continued training at his own expense and finally managed to return to the European Cup team of the ÖSV. On December 15, 1991 he drove his first race in the World Cup , but was initially only used very rarely. After good results in the European Cup , he took part in several races in the 1993/94 season and scored his first points in the giant slalom on the Gran Risa in Alta Badia as 21st . In the same season he improved his top result to sixteenth place in the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora .

International breakthrough (1995–1996)

In December 1994, the Austrian achieved his first result in the top ten in his first race of the season, a seventh place in the giant slalom in Tignes , which he was able to repeat shortly afterwards in the slalom in Sestriere . In February 1995 Reiter finally achieved his breakthrough when he first came second in the World Cup slalom in Furano and then celebrated his first victory in the giant slalom at the same location . He distanced Jure Košir from runner-up by a good tenth of a second. After a short interlude in the Far East Cup , where he won two slalom races, he returned to the World Cup at the end of the season in March 1995, but did not make it back into the top 10, but achieved his best in the Super-G in Bormio with 20th place Result in a speed discipline. At the end of the month he took part very successfully in the Austrian Championship , where he completely defeated the national competition in both giant slalom and slalom. All in all, he placed tenth in the overall World Cup that season, fifth in slalom and eighth in giant slalom.

The 1996 Alpine Ski World Cup began with an initial series of failures for riders. Of the first four races of the season he didn't see the finish line in three, but at the giant slalom in Beaver Creek he managed a good fifth place. This was followed by several top 10 results in a row, so that he pushed himself back up in the World Cup rankings. After two further podium results in December 1995 and January 1996, he triumphed in the slalom in Sestriere for the second time. Thanks to these good performances, he was also nominated for the Alpine World Ski Championships in 1996 , his first major event since the Junior World Championships eight years earlier. The combination ended Reiter in fourth place, where he even had a chance of victory as the leader after the slalom. While he was eliminated in the first round of the giant slalom, he won the silver medal in the slalom behind the Italian Alberto Tomba and thus still lived up to the high expectations. This was Reiter's most successful season in the World Cup: he finished eighth in the overall World Cup, fourth in the slalom classification and sixth in the giant slalom classification.

Greatest successes (1997–1998)

As in the previous year, Reiter started the new 1996/97 season badly . Although he always crossed the finish line in the first races, he never made it into the top 10. It was only shortly before the World Championship in February of that year that he returned to the road to success and won the traditional World Cup slalom in Kitzbühel . At the 1997 World Championships in Sestriere , Reiter won the bronze medal in combination. After only finishing 23rd in the combined descent, he was able to achieve the medal ranks with the best times in both slalom runs. However, since the other Austrians only won two bronze medals in the Super-G and in the giant slalom and had no medals at all in the downhill, it was hoped that victory would finally come in the slalom, which took place on the last day of the World Cup. With Thomas Stangassinger , Thomas Sykora and Rankweiler himself there were three Austrian favorites. While Stangassinger and Sykora were at least sixth and ninth, Reiter was eliminated and thus missed the third World Championship medal. Even at the end of the season, he failed to make it onto the podium in the last World Cup races, and overall he slipped to tenth place in the Slalom World Cup.

Although Reiter had almost no successes in the 1997/98 Ski World Cup - his best result was an 11th place - he only won the nomination for this just before the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano . As one of four Austrian starters, he took part in the alpine combination and slalom. He finished the combined slalom race with almost two seconds ahead of runner-up Lasse Kjus . Although he made up more than 1.2 seconds in the downhill, it was no longer enough to push the Austrian out of the lead so that Reiter could celebrate the Olympic victory. In the slalom, which took place eleven days later, Reiter started as a favorite after his victory, but was eliminated in the first round. In the last World Cup slalom of the winter, he still achieved the only top 10 result of the season.

Last years and end of career (1998-2001)

After the Olympic victory, he hardly achieved any success. In the 1998/99 season , Reiter, who meanwhile only drove slaloms in the World Cup, only crossed the finish line in three races. His best result was only a 16th place in Wengen , with which he was only 34th in the slalom classification. Nevertheless, he was used again in the combination at the 1999 World Championships , but was eliminated in the slalom. In the 1999/2000 season , the Austrian tried to get back to the top of the world with several starts in the European and Nor-Am Cups and finally showed his skills again when he finished fourth in the World Cup slalom in Yongpyong, South Korea, at the end of February placed. In March he achieved his last top 10 result with a ninth place in Schladming .

In the Alpine Ski World Cup 2000/01 rider appeared internationally for the last time. In several World Cup starts, however, he only reached the goal three times. Finally, one day before his 31st birthday, on November 4, 2001, he surprisingly announced his retirement from ski racing because he could no longer keep up with the latest technical developments in the slalom area. He said: “I wasn't able to hold onto the top last year. After a really good summer training session, my last performance was too good to stop immediately, but also too bad to convince. It has been shown that, as far as human beings can judge, I will no longer reach the top. ”Like many other formerly successful Austrian ski racers, he worked as a co-commentator on ORF until the 2008/09 season . Since then he has been employed in the marketing department of the Austrian Ski Association.

successes

winter Olympics

World championships

World Cup ratings

season total Super G Giant slalom slalom
space Points space Points space Points space Points
1993/94 85. 50 52. 1 32. 37 46. 12
1994/95 10. 559 - - 8th. 218 5. 341
1995/96 8th. 667 - - 6th 283 4th 384
1996/97 29 328 - - 25th 56 10. 272
1997/98 64. 100 - - - - 23. 100
1998/99 86. 39 - - - - 34. 39
1999/00 48. 155 - - - - 18th 155
2000/01 99 37 - - - - 37. 37

World Cup victories

Reiter achieved 7 podiums, including 3 wins:

date place country discipline
February 20, 1995 Furano Japan Giant slalom
January 27, 1996 Sestriere Italy slalom
January 26, 1997 Kitzbühel Austria slalom

European Cup

Junior World Championships

Austrian championships

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Snow is more than frozen water. (Interview with Mario Reiter) . (PDF; 1.8 MB) (No longer available online.) Regional Tourism Directorate Vorarlberg, July 2007, p. 6 , archived from the original on December 24, 2015 ; Retrieved December 30, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sk-rankweil.at
  2. ↑ a b Austrian Ski Association (Ed.): Austrian Ski Stars from A – Z , Innsbruck 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , p. 346
  3. ↑ Michael Smejkal: Bad luck on the skis and champagne in the cellar. In: Berliner Zeitung. February 15, 1997, accessed December 30, 2008 .
  4. ↑ Mario Reiter - surprising comeback (biography of Mario Reiter) . Austrian Olympic Museum, accessed December 30, 2008 .
  5. ↑ Mario Reiter ends skiing career. In: skiinfo.de. Skiinfo.de, November 5, 2001, accessed December 30, 2008 .
  6. ↑ http://www.parlament.gv.at/PG/PR/JAHR_1999/PK0455/PK0455.shtml Parliamentary correspondence of the Austrian Parliament on the 15th sports report of October 1, 1999, accessed on November 11, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Rider, Mario
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH 5th November 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Rankweil