Sami Uotila
Sami Uotila 
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| nation |
 Finland
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| birthday | 2nd November 1976 (age 43) | ||||||||
| place of birth | Helsinki , Finland | ||||||||
| size | 169 cm | ||||||||
| Career | |||||||||
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| discipline | Giant slalom, super-G, slalom | ||||||||
| society | Espoo slalom | ||||||||
| status | resigned | ||||||||
| End of career | January 19, 2007 | ||||||||
| Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup | |||||||||
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Sami Uotila (born November 2, 1976 in Helsinki ) is a former Finnish ski racer . He is the first male Finnish ski racer to reach a podium in a World Cup race .
biography
Uotila was a member of the Finnish national ski team from 1993. His specialty was the giant slalom . He contested his first World Cup race in December 1994. His breakthrough to the top of the world came five years later on December 19, 1999 when he finished 9th in the top ten for the first time on the Gran Risa in Alta Badia, Italy , after the first round (Source: News Archive 1999 - Vorarlberg - Vol.at - www.vol.at/date/1999/page/6). In the same place he achieved the greatest success of his career on December 16, 2001: In the giant slalom he achieved third place, the best position that a Finnish ski racer had achieved up to then. He could only repeat this placement once, in January 2003 in the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora . After that, numerous injuries hindered his athletic development. In total, he was among the top 10 eleven times.
Uotila took part in the Winter Olympics in 1998 and 2002 . He only finished one Olympic race: in the giant slalom in Nagano , he was 19th. Uotila took part in four Alpine World Ski Championships ( 1997 , 1999 , 2001 , 2005 ). He achieved his best placement in 1999 in Vail , where he finished ninth in the giant slalom.
After 13 years in the Alpine Ski World Cup, he ended his career in 2007 and then worked as a commentator on Finnish television.
successes
Olympic games
- Nagano 1998 : 19th giant slalom
World championships
- Sestriere 1997 : 15th giant slalom, 42nd Super-G
- Vail / Beaver Creek 1999 : 9th giant slalom, 30th Super-G
- St. Anton 2001 : 10th giant slalom
World cup
- 2001/02 season : 8th giant slalom classification
- 2 podium places, 9 further placements among the top ten
European Cup
- 1997/98 season : 3rd giant slalom rating, 9th Super-G rating
- 1998/99 season : 9th overall ranking, 2nd giant slalom ranking
- 1999/2000 season : 8th overall ranking, 2nd giant slalom ranking
- 2000/01 season : 3rd overall ranking, 1st giant slalom ranking
- 20 podium places, including 10 wins (all in giant slalom)
Junior World Championships
- Lake Placid 1994 : 8th Super-G, 10th downhill
- Voss 1995 : 8th descent, 23rd slalom
More Achievements
- 2 podiums in the Nor-Am Cup , including 1 victory
- 4 Finnish championship titles (giant slalom 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2002)
- 9 victories in FIS races
Web links
- Sami Uotila's website
- Sami Uotila in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
- Sami Uotila in the database of Ski-DB (English)
- Sami Uotila in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Uotila, Sami |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish ski racer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd November 1976 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Helsinki , Finland |