Sonja Steinacher

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sonja Steinacher Luge
nation ItalyItaly Italy
birthday 16th August 1975
place of birth Brixen
Career
discipline Single seater
National squad Since 1993
status resigned
End of career 2003
Medal table
World championships 3 × gold 1 × silver 1 × bronze
European championships 1 × gold 0 × silver 2 × bronze
Junior European Championship 2 × gold 0 × silver 2 × bronze
FIL Natural Track Luge World Championships
bronze Rautavaara 1998 Single seater
silver Olang 2000 Single seater
gold Stein an der Enns 2001 Single seater
gold Stein an der Enns 2001 team
gold Železniki 2003 Single seater
FIL European Natural Track Luge Championships
bronze Moos in Passeier 1997 Single seater
gold Szczyrk 1999 Single seater
bronze Frantschach 2002 Single seater
FIL Natural track toboggan junior European Championship
bronze Rod 1992 Single seater
gold Rautavaara 1993 Single seater
gold Längenfeld 1994 Single seater
bronze Fénis 1995 Single seater
Placements in the Natural Track Luge World Cup
 Debut in the World Cup December 13, 1992
 World Cup victories 14th
 Overall World Cup ES 1. ( 1996/1997 , 1999/2000 ,
2001/2002 , 2002/2003 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Single seater 14th 12 12
 

Sonja Steinacher (born August 16, 1975 in Brixen ) is a former Italian natural track tobogganist . In the second half of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, she was one of the most successful athletes in natural tobogganing. She was three times world champion , once European champion , twice junior European champion and won the overall world cup four times with a total of 14 victories in world cup races .

Career

Sonja Steinacher first took part in international championships in 1992. While she was initially without a medal at the World and European Championships in the General Class, she achieved a podium place at all of her starts at the Junior European Championships : in 1992 in Stange and 1995 in Saint-Marcel / Fénis she won the bronze medal and in 1993 in Rautavaara and in 1994 in Längenfeld she was twice junior European champion. During these years Steinacher also achieved the first podium places in the newly introduced World Cup . In the first World Cup race in history on December 13, 1992, she was second behind the Russian Lyubow Panjutina . With another podium in Gummer , she ended the 1992/1993 season in sixth position in the overall World Cup. After she had not been on the podium in the winter of 1993/1994 , she was again among the fastest three times in the 1994/1995 and 1995/1996 seasons and reached fourth place in the overall World Cup.

Steinacher's final breakthrough came in the 1996/1997 season . With her first World Cup victory on January 19, 1997 in Szczyrk as well as three second places and a third place, she won the overall World Cup for the first time - ahead of the Russian Panjutina, who despite three victories in the second half of the season could no longer make up for her deficit on Steinacher . With a third place at the European Championships in 1997 in Moos in Passeier , she also won her first medal at major events, which she succeeded every year from now on. She was third again at the 1998 World Championships in Rautavaara and won the gold medal at the 1999 European Championships in Szczyrk.

In the overall World Cup of the 1997/1998 season , Steinacher achieved third place with two podium places. In the 1998/1999 season she was among the top three in each of the six World Cup races, where she won one, came second three times and third twice, but was beaten by just under five points in the overall World Cup by Elvira Holzknecht. The decisions in the overall World Cup for the next two years were just as tight. In the 1999/2000 season Steinacher won the overall World Cup for the second time thanks to four wins and two third places with a lead of 15 points over Holzknecht, but in the 2000/2001 season she remained despite two wins and a second and third place by ten points behind the Russian Ekaterina Lavrentieva . At the 2000 World Championships in Olang , Steinacher also lost out to Lavrentjewa, but the following year she won both the gold medal in the single-seater competition and the gold medal in the team competition held for the first time, together with Anton Blasbichler and Armin Mair at the 2001 World Cup in Stein an der Enns and David Mair .

Steinacher showed an impressive performance in the 2001/2002 season . She won five of the six World Cup races and thus secured her third overall World Cup victory. At the European Championships in 2002 in Frantschach-Sankt Gertraud , however, she had to make do with third place behind Sandra Lanthaler and Jekaterina Lavrentjewa in a tight decision . The decision in the overall World Cup for the 2002/2003 season , which developed into a duel between Jekaterina Lavrentjewa and Sonja Steinacher , was also very close . After four of the six races of the season Lavrentjewa was still ten points ahead, but with her 14th and last World Cup victory on January 30, 2003 in Kindberg , Steinacher ultimately won the overall World Cup for the fourth time with a five point lead , something that no natural track tobogganist had ever done before succeeded. At the 2003 World Championships in Železniki Steinacher won her third world championship title with seven hundredths of a second ahead of Lavrentjewa. After the 2002/2003 season, Steinacher ended her successful career at the age of 27.

successes

World championships

European championships

Junior European Championships

World cup
date place country
January 19, 1997 Szczyrk Poland
January 17, 1999 Bad Goisern Austria
January 16, 2000 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Germany
January 23, 2000 Gummer Italy
February 20, 2000 Železniki Slovenia
February 27, 2000 * Fénis Italy
January 7, 2001 Unterammergau Germany
January 14, 2001 Lüsen Italy
December 14, 2001 Olang Italy
December 16, 2001 Olang Italy
December 19, 2001 Triesenberg Liechtenstein
January 13, 2002 Umhausen Austria
January 27, 2002 * Železniki Slovenia
January 30, 2003 Kindberg Austria

* at the same time as Sandra Mariner

Web links

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx292o_steinacher (World Championship 2001)

literature

  • Harald Steyrer, Herbert Wurzer, Egon Theiner: 50 years of FIL 1957–2007. The history of the International Luge Federation in three volumes. Volume II, Egoth Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902480-46-0 , pp. 285-407.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Natural track: A new face on the podium: Renate Kasslatter (ITA) wins the women's competition. International Luge Federation , December 13, 2003, accessed May 28, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Steinacher, Sonja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian natural track tobogganist
DATE OF BIRTH 16th August 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH Bressanone , Italy