Michael Gmeiner

Michael Gmeiner
nation	Austria
birthday	21st November 1985 (age 34)
place of birth	Dornbirn , Austria
size	174 cm
Weight	82 kg
Career
discipline	Downhill , Super-G , giant slalom , slalom , combination
society	SC Alberschwende
status	resigned
End of career	2010
Medal table
Junior World Championship 2 × 0 × 0 ×
Alpine Ski Junior World Championships gold Bardonecchia 2005 Super G gold Bardonecchia 2005 Giant slalom
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
Individual World Cup debut March 11, 2005
last change: January 16, 2018

Michael Gmeiner (born November 21, 1985 in Dornbirn ) is a former Austrian ski racer . In 2005 he became Junior World Champion in giant slalom and Super-G .

Career

After some success in school races, Gmeiner contested his first FIS race in November 2000 . In February 2003 he was third in the Super-G and in the combined at the Austrian youth championships and in December of the same year he was among the top ten in an FIS race in the Tschagguns slalom for the first time. The Vorarlberg resident made his first appearance in the European Cup on January 23, 2004 in the Super-G in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee , but only came in 72nd. The next European Cup starts followed a year later in Bad Kleinkirchheim . Here he finished 30th in the Super-G for the first and only time in the points. Two days later he came on the podium for the first time in an FIS race with third place in the slalom in Hinterreit near Maria Alm .

Junior World Champion 2005

The then 19-year-old celebrated the greatest successes of his career in February 2005 at the Junior World Championships in Bardonecchia . Gmeiner won both the Super-G and the giant slalom and was fourth in the downhill. In his actually strongest discipline, the slalom, he failed, which is why he was not included in the combination. As a two-time junior world champion, he was allowed to compete in these disciplines at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide . In the Super-G, however, he did not finish and he did not take part in the giant slalom the next day. This Super-G was his only World Cup appearance.

In the following two years, Gmeiner was set back from multiple injuries. In November 2005 he tore a cruciate ligament in a training fall on the Mölltaler Glacier , which is why he was unable to compete in any races during the entire winter of 2005/06. The next summer he had to take a break from training after a car accident. On December 11, 2006, Gmeiner made his comeback in the FIS giant slalom in Pitztal and reached eighth place. Only two days later he fell again in the second round of the giant slalom in Laax and suffered another cruciate ligament tear. Gmeiner returned to the slopes in winter 2007/08. He reached three podium places in FIS races, but was only used once in the European Cup and remained far from the points. At the end of March 2008 he achieved his best result at Austrian championships with tenth place in the Super-G . In the 2008/09 season Gmeiner made it onto the podium in two FIS giant slaloms, but in his three European Cup appearances, a 47th place in the Super-G on the Reiteralm was his only result. That is why he lost his ÖSV team membership after the winter .

At the beginning of the 2009/10 season Gmeiner took part in two European Cup races and then only started in FIS races. On December 12th, 2009 he achieved the first and only victory in an FIS race in the Super-G of Matrei in East Tyrol , after having been on the podium eight times before. After that winter, Gmeiner ended his career.

Sporting successes

Junior World Championships

• Bardonecchia 2005 : 1st Super-G, 1st giant slalom, 4th downhill

More Achievements

• A victory in an FIS race

Web links

• Michael Gmeiner's website
• Michael Gmeiner in the database of the International Ski Association (English)
• Michael Gmeiner in the database of Ski-DB (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Gmeiner's bad luck , Vorarlberg Online, December 15, 2006