Stephan Eberharter

Stephan Eberharter

Stephan Eberharter in January 2000

nation

Austria

birthday

24th March 1969 (age 51)

place of birth

Brixlegg , Austria

size

180 cm

Weight

85 kg

job

ski instructor

Career

discipline

Downhill , Super-G , giant slalom ,
slalom , combination

society

WSV Zell am Ziller

status

resigned

End of career

September 17, 2004

Medal table

Olympic games	1 ×	2 ×	1 ×
World championships	3 ×	1 ×	0 ×

winter Olympics
silver	Nagano 1998	Giant slalom
gold	Salt Lake City 2002	Giant slalom
silver	Salt Lake City 2002	Super G
bronze	Salt Lake City 2002	Departure
Alpine World Ski Championships
gold	Saalbach 1991	Super G
gold	Saalbach 1991	combination
silver	St. Anton 2001	Super G
gold	St. Moritz 2003	Super G

Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup

Individual World Cup debut	November 23, 1989
Individual world cup victories	29
Overall World Cup	1. ( 2001/02 , 2002/03 )
Downhill World Cup	1. (2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04 )
Super G World Cup	1. (2001/02, 2002/03)
Giant Slalom World Cup	2. ( 1998/1999 )
Slalom World Cup	25. ( 1990/91 )
Combination World Cup	5. (1990/91), ( 1991/92 )

Podium placements	1.	2.	3.
Departure	18th	9	11
Super G	6th	9	9
Giant slalom	5	4th	4th

Stephan Eberharter (born March 24, 1969 in Brixlegg ) is a former Austrian ski racer . He won an Olympic gold medal , three world championship titles and won the overall World Cup in the 2001/02 and 2002/03 seasons . Added to this is the five-time win of a World Cup discipline and 29 World Cup victories . Thus Eberharter is one of the most successful ski racers of the ÖSV .

biography

The beginning

Eberharter completed his school education at the Neustift main ski school and at the Stams ski trade school . He gained his first international experience at the Junior World Championships in 1987 , where his best result was seventh in the giant slalom. In 1988 he was accepted into the squad of the ÖSV and won the overall ranking of the European Cup in the 1988/89 season and the giant slalom ranking, tied with Italian Attilio Barcella . After these successes, he started the World Cup next winter and already achieved four top ten placements in his first season. The first podium followed on December 2, 1990 with third place in the Super-G of Valloire .

At the 1991 World Cup in Saalbach-Hinterglemm , the then 21-year-old made his big breakthrough. With victories in the Super-G and in the combination, he became double world champion. Two more podium places followed in the World Cup this winter, putting him in second place in the Super-G ranking behind the Swiss Franz Heinzer , and at the end of the season he won the Austrian slalom championship . Due to his great success at the World Cup, he was voted Austrian Sportsman of the Year in 1991 .

In the following years Eberharter was repeatedly thrown back by injuries. Shortly before the Olympic Games in 1992 he suffered an inner ligament tear, but started there in the combination, where he failed after finishing 18th in the downhill in the first slalom run. The best World Cup results this season were two fourth places in the combinations of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Kitzbühel . In autumn 1992 he suffered a broken collarbone in a motorcycle accident . At the 1993 World Championships in Morioka-Shizukuishi , he could not defend his combination title, he fell out in slalom. But he kept the Super G title, because this race had to be canceled due to the bad weather. On March 7th, he achieved his best result of the season by far with second place in the Super-G in Aspen .

In December 1993 he suffered serious injuries in his left knee in a fall in Val Gardena , which meant the end of the season for him. As a result, he had to undergo several meniscus operations. In the next winter he did not achieve any good results either and finally dropped out of the ÖSV World Cup squad.

The comeback

In the following years Eberharter tried to qualify for the World Cup again via the European Cup. In the 1995/96 season he reached several podium places, and took part in the 1996 World Cup in Sierra Nevada without being part of the national team. As defending champion, he was able to start in the Super-G, but did not make it into the ranking (disqualification). In the 1996/97 European Cup season , the results clearly improved. With six victories he won the overall classification, the downhill classification and the Super-G classification and thus secured himself a permanent place in the World Cup in these disciplines.

With his comeback in the World Cup in the 1997/98 season , he rose to the top of the world. In the first race of the season, the giant slalom in Tignes on October 26th, Eberharter reached fourth place with the high starting number 42, followed by several podium places in December and January. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano , he won the silver medal in giant slalom behind his team-mate Hermann Maier . Maier was also Eberharter's biggest competitor in those years, and he was only able to step out of whose shadow after Maier's serious injury. At the end of the season, Eberharter achieved his first World Cup victory in the giant slalom in Crans-Montana on March 14th. In the overall World Cup, as well as in the Super-G, he finished third, and in the giant slalom he finished fourth.

The 1998/99 season started as successfully as the previous one ended. After finishing second at the season opener in Sölden , he celebrated two more victories in the next two races. At the World Championships in Vail , he narrowly missed the medal ranks twice. In the Super-G he was fourth, in the downhill fifth, in the giant slalom he was out in the first round. In the final World Cup ranking he achieved second place in the Super G and giant slalom rankings and fourth place overall with three wins and a further six podium places. In the nine-time victory of the ÖSV ski team on the Patscherkofel, he finished fourth.

The 1999/2000 season did not go quite as well . Eberharter achieved six podium positions, but never won any race. In the overall World Cup he fell back to sixth place, in downhill and super-G he was fifth and seventh respectively. In the following winter he celebrated two victories, made it onto the podium seven more times and finished second in the overall World Cup behind Hermann Maier, who won by a large margin. He also finished second behind Maier in the downhill classification and fourth in the Super-G. At the 2001 World Cup in St. Anton , he won the silver medal in the Super-G, beaten only by the American Daron Rahlves . He finished seventh in the downhill.

Overall World Cup win

After Maier's serious motorcycle accident in August 2001, Eberharter finally made it to the top. Often labeled second by the media before , he won ten races in the 2001/02 season , achieved a further seven podium places and won the large crystal ball for the overall World Cup victory with more than 600 points ahead of Norwegian Kjetil André Aamodt . He also won the Downhill and Super G World Cups, and came third in the giant slalom. The great successes were not lacking at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City . In the downhill he won the bronze medal, in the Super-G he only had to admit defeat to the Norwegian Aamodt by a tenth of a second and in the giant slalom he was Olympic champion with a clear lead over the American Bode Miller . Because of these successes, he was named Austrian Sportsman of the Year for the second time in 2002.

In the following winter Eberharter was able to seamlessly follow up on last year's results. He won a total of nine races of the season, made it into the top three four more times and, as in the previous year, won the overall World Cup, the Downhill World Cup and the Super-G classification. At the age of 33, he was also the oldest overall World Cup winner in history. At the 2003 World Cup in St. Moritz , Switzerland , he was, like twelve years earlier, world champion in the Super-G. For the second time in a row, Eberharter was awarded the Skieur d'Or by the International Association of Ski Journalists (AIJS) in 2003.

After these successes, Eberharter thought about resigning for a short time, but then decided to start another year in the World Cup. In his last season he won four downhill runs and thus won the Downhill World Cup for the third time in a row, in the Super-G he reached third place with several podium places. In the overall World Cup he was only just beaten by the fully recovered Hermann Maier. On January 24, 2004, he won the Hahnenkamm downhill run in Kitzbühel for the second time with a lead of 1.21 seconds over Daron Rahlves . This victory ride is considered the perfect ride on the legendary Streif .

On September 17, 2004, Eberharter announced his retirement from skiing.

Glossist in the "Kronenzeitung"

For a long time Eberharter has been writing regular glosses in the "Kronenzeitung" on alpine ski racing.

successes

winter Olympics

Nagano 1998 : 2nd giant slalom
Salt Lake City 2002 : 1st giant slalom, 2nd Super-G, 3rd downhill

World championships

Saalbach-Hinterglemm 1991 : 1st Super-G, 1st combination, 17th giant slalom
Vail 1999 : 4th Super-G, 5th Downhill
St. Anton 2001 : 2nd Super-G, 7th descent
St. Moritz 2003 : 1st Super-G, 5th Downhill, 23rd Giant Slalom

World Cup ratings

season	total		Departure		Super G		Giant slalom		slalom		combination
season	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space	Points
1989/90	32.	45	-	-	14th	26th	18th	19th	-	-	-	-
1990/91	12.	88	-	-	2.	33	7th	35	25th	9	5.	11
1991/92	36.	261	57.	10	27.	68	43.	19th	33.	54	5.	110
1992/93	29	249	50.	10	12.	158	42.	12	-	-	10.	69
1993/94	No results due to injury
1994/95	104.	23	45.	19th	51.	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-
1995/96	European Cup
1996/97	European Cup
1997/98	3.	1030	7th	377	3.	220	4th	388	-	-	9.	45
1998/99	4th	1079	7th	339	2.	330	2.	410	-	-	-	-
1999/00	6th	904	5.	454	7th	246	16.	154	-	-	9.	50
2000/01	2.	875	2.	562	4th	208	21st	105	-	-	9.	50
2001/02	1.	1702	1.	810	1.	470	3.	422	-	-	-	-
2002/03	1.	1333	1.	790	1.	356	16.	147	-	-	12.	40
2003/04	2.	1223	1.	831	3.	312	29	65	-	-	22nd	15th

World Cup victories

29 wins (18 runs, 6 Super-G, 5 giant slaloms)
75 podium places (38 downhill, 24 super-G, 13 giant slalom)

Departure

date	place	country
November 25, 2000	Lake Louise	Canada
March 3, 2001	Kvitfjell	Norway
December 8, 2001	Val d'Isère	France
December 15, 2001	Val Gardena	Italy
January 12, 2002	Wengen	Switzerland
January 19, 2002	Kitzbühel	Austria
February 2, 2002	St. Moritz	Switzerland
March 6, 2002	Altenmarkt-Zauchensee	Austria
November 30, 2002	Lake Louise	Canada
December 7, 2002	Beaver Creek	United States
December 14, 2002	Val d'Isère	France
January 11, 2003	Bormio	Italy
January 17, 2003	Wengen	Switzerland
February 22, 2003	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Germany
January 10, 2004	Chamonix	France
January 24, 2004	Kitzbühel	Austria
January 31, 2004	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Germany
March 6, 2004	Kvitfjell	Norway

Super G

date	place	country
November 27, 1998	Aspen	United States
December 7, 2001	Val d'Isère	France
January 18, 2002	Kitzbühel	Austria
January 27, 2002	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Germany
December 1, 2002	Lake Louise	Canada
March 13, 2003	Kvitfjell	Norway

Giant slalom

date	place	country
March 14, 1998	Crans-Montana	Switzerland
November 20, 1998	Park City	United States
February 27, 1999	Often swing	Germany
February 3, 2002	St. Moritz	Switzerland
October 27, 2002	Soelden	Austria

European Cup

1988/89 season : 1st overall ranking, 1st giant slalom, 4th Super-G
1995/96 season : 5th descent
1996/97 season : 1st overall ranking, 1st downhill, 1st Super-G, 2nd giant slalom
A total of 7 wins, 3 × second, 6 × third