Raphael Maier lives in Rum in Tyrol . He started skeleton in 2006 and has been a member of Austria's national team since 2008. He made his international debut in December 2008 at the European Cup in Winterberg , where he finished 23rd. The highlight of the first season was the 2009 Junior World Championships in Königssee , where he finished eleventh. He then achieved a top ten placement in the European Cup for the first time in ninth place in St. Moritz . The 2009/10 season began with a sixth and a fifth place in the European Cup races in Königssee. After that Maier was allowed to compete in the Intercontinental Cup for the first time and was 19 in Königssee. Maier was even more successful in the post-Olympic season 2010/11. First he started in Park City in two races in the America's Cup , where he finished fifth and fourth. He was also able to achieve fifth place in Cesana as the best result in the European Cup . In the overall ranking of the competition, Maier was ninth in 2010/11.
In January 2011, he made his debut in the Skeleton World Cup in Igls , where he was 23rd. The following race in Winterberg was also the European Skeleton Championship 2011 , in the European Championship he came in 14th place. As 20th in St. Moritz, he achieved a top 20 placement in the World Cup for the first time. In the Skeleton World Cup 2011/12 , he finished 12th as the best place (again in St. Moritz) and was 15th overall; at the European Championships he was tenth. The Junior World Championships 2012 in Innsbruck finished fourth. In the following season , his best World Cup result was 11th place in Königssee and in fourth place he again narrowly missed a medal at the Junior World Championships. At the Skeleton World Cup 2013 he was 13th. In the Skeleton World Cup 2013/14 Maier's best result was again eleventh and he finished 16th in the overall standings. He won the bronze medal at the 2014 Junior World Championships. With the Austrian team , including his brother Benjamin Maier (4-man bobsleigh ), he took part in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi ( Russia ) and came in 19th. In the first race of the season of the 2014/15 World Cup , Maier achieved his first top 10 position in the World Cup with a sixth place. Overall he finished 16th again and won bronze for the second time at the Junior World Championships. He finished the 2015 Skeleton World Championship in 18th place.
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Austria
