Ulrike Maier

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Ulli Maier Alpine skiing
Full name Ulrike Maier
nation AustriaAustria Austria
birthday October 22, 1967
place of birth Rauris , Austria
size 163 cm
Weight 56 kg
date of death January 29, 1994
Place of death Murnau , Germany
Career
discipline Slalom , giant slalom ,
super-G , downhill ,
combination
society USK Rauris
Medal table
World championships 2 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
gold Vail 1989 Super G
gold Saalbach 1991 Super G
silver Saalbach 1991 Giant slalom
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut 1984
 Individual world cup victories 5
 Overall World Cup 5. ( 1992/93 )
 Downhill World Cup 36th ( 1991/92 )
 Super G World Cup 2. (1992/93)
 Giant Slalom World Cup 4. ( 1988/89 ,
1992/93, 1993/94 )
 Slalom World Cup 10. ( 1987/88 )
 Combination World Cup 2. (1988/89)
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Super G 2 5 1
 Giant slalom 3 3 4th
 slalom 0 0 1
 combination 0 1 0
 
Memorial stone on the Rauris market square
Ulli Maier's grave at the Rauris cemetery

Ulrike "Ulli" Maier (born October 22, 1967 in Rauris , † January 29, 1994 in Murnau ) was an Austrian ski racer . She became two-time world champion in super-G, vice-world champion in giant slalom and won five world cup races .

biography

The daughter of a ski school operator took part in numerous races as a child and teenager. In 1979 she became Austrian student champion in giant slalom and combined in her age group and won the Trofeo Topolino . At the age of 15 she was accepted into the ÖSV squad and in 1984 was Austrian junior champion in combination. In the European Cup she reached second place overall in the 1983/84 season and won the slalom classification. At the Junior World Championships in 1984 and 1985 , however, she did not reach top positions.

After her good performance in the European Cup, the 17-year-old competed in the World Cup for the first time in the 1984/85 season . On December 9, 1984 she scored her first points with 14th place in the combination of Davos , on January 25, 1985 she finished eighth in the Arosa slalom for the first time among the top ten. In the following winter she came into the points only once, in 1986/87 she reached two sixth places in the slaloms of Waterville Valley and Val Zoldana .

At the beginning of the 1987/88 season Maier reached the podium for the first time with third place in the Courmayeur slalom on November 30th and was consistently one of the top ten throughout the season. She qualified for participation in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary , where she was the best Austrian in the giant slalom and was sixth in the slalom and finished tenth. After the games, she also made her first World Cup podiums in giant slalom and super-G, the disciplines in which she celebrated the greatest successes in the course of her career. With her consistently good performance, she came eighth in the overall World Cup and was among the top ten in all disciplines, except downhill.

In the 1988/89 season , Maier took second place four times in the giant slalom, super-G and combination disciplines; she did not succeed in a World Cup victory. She celebrated her first really big triumph at the 1989 World Cup in Vail . Maier became world champion in Super-G with a lead of almost three hundredths over teammate Sigrid Wolf . In addition, she reached sixth place in the combination and eighth in the giant slalom. She then announced that she was three months pregnant at the time and therefore ended the season. The father of her daughter Melanie is Hubert Schweighofer , also an Austrian ski racer. Maier was voted Austria's Sportswoman of the Year 1989. In the 1989/90 season , she returned to the slopes, but had to undergo two operations after a meniscus tear in January and a cruciate ligament tear in March and did not achieve any World Cup points.

After the injury-related break, she won World Cup points for the first time on January 11, 1991 in the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora with ninth place, a week later she was twelfth in Méribel's Super-G . For the world championship in Saalbach-Hinterglemm at the end of January / beginning of February, however, no one seriously expected the Salzburg woman to come out on top because of her lack of training. Thanks to her routine and technique, however, she made the unbelievable come true and successfully defended her world title by winning the Super-G in front of the Frenchwoman Carole Merle . A few days later she proved that this was no coincidence with second place in the giant slalom behind the Swede Pernilla Wiberg . In the further course of the season, she achieved a podium again in the World Cup at the last giant slalom in Waterville Valley.

In the 1991/92 season Maier finished eight times in the top ten, the best result was second place in Morzine's Super-G. At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville , she narrowly missed the podium twice, finishing fourth in the giant slalom and fifth in the Super-G.

After Maier had finished second seven times in the World Cup, she achieved her first World Cup victory at the start of the 1992/93 season . On November 28, 1992, she won the Park City giant slalom . Two more victories followed in the Super Gs from Vail on December 13th and from Cortina d'Ampezzo on January 16th. With that she reached second place in the Super-G classification and fourth in the giant slalom classification. In the overall World Cup, she was fifth. At the 1993 World Cup in Morioka - Shizukuishi , Japan , Maier was unable to build on her previous World Cup successes; Her best result was eighth place in the combination, in the Super-G the defending champion only finished 14th and in the giant slalom she only came 15th.

In the 1993/94 season Maier celebrated two more World Cup successes. On November 27, 1993 she won the giant slalom in Santa Caterina and on January 21, 1994, the giant slalom in Maribor . It was to remain her last successes, because eight days later she had a fatal accident.

Deadly accident

On January 29, 1994, Ulrike Maier fell during the Kandahar descent in Garmisch-Partenkirchen . By tilting the right ski, she lost control and fell. Immediately before the impact, the ski racer measured a speed of around 104 km / h.

Some observers say that she hit her head against an improperly positioned wooden post that was supposed to shield the timekeeping and that was not sawn as required. In the court proceedings it was established: “When the runner hit the snow wedge with her buttocks, the rapid turning movement was abruptly slowed down. But because the rotation still acted on the head with a mass of about 400 kilos, the result was fatal Brain death led. ”The subsequent lawsuit against the FIS ended with a settlement in favor of a fund for the daughter Maiers. After the accident, Maier was brought to the Murnau Accident Clinic by rescue helicopter , where her death was determined.

The tragedy occurred during a live televised race and is burned into the minds of many viewers . The race continued after the incident.

After all, your accident led to increased safety precautions in alpine skiing such as high-security safety fences, blue tracks in the snow and safer helmets. Since the 1994/1995 season, athletes have had to sign a declaration stating that they are racing at their own risk.

Posthumous

Kamil Taylan took the accident as the starting point for a critical television and book report published in 1994 about the ski racing business Deadly Piste: Ski races at any price .

A passage was dedicated to her on the World Cup course in Saalbach ( Ulli Maier jump ). In addition, on the 25th anniversary of her death in 2019, a ski slope in her home town of Rauris was named after her.

Sporting successes

Olympic games

World championships

Junior World Championships

World Cup ratings

season total Departure Super G Giant slalom slalom combination
space Points space Points space Points space Points space Points space Points
1984/85 62. 10 - - - - - - 29 8th 30th 2
1985/86 77. 4th - - - - - - 33. 4th - -
1986/87 35. 28 - - - - 32. 5 19th 23 - -
1987/88 8th. 132 - - 6th 34 9. 39 10. 49 10. 10
1988/89 7th 150 - - 4th 33 4th 60 13. 26th 2. 31
1990/91 30th 50 - - 26th 8th 9. 42 - - - -
1991/92 13. 561 36. 25th 4th 233 6th 256 33. 47 - -
1992/93 5. 696 45. 14th 2. 356 4th 252 32. 45 14th 29
1993/94 7th 711 46. 22nd 7th 160 4th 432 33. 52 11. 45

World Cup victories

Maier achieved 20 podium places, including 5 wins:

date place country discipline
November 28, 1992 Park City United States Giant slalom
December 13, 1992 Vail United States Super G
January 16, 1993 Cortina d'Ampezzo Italy Super G
November 27, 1993 Santa Caterina Italy Giant slalom
January 21, 1994 Maribor Slovenia Giant slalom

European Cup

Austrian championships

  • Vice state champion in slalom 1992 and giant slalom 1986
  • Junior Champion Combined 1984

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Ulrike Maier  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Wolfgang Gärner: The fences stare innocently. January 29, 2004, accessed January 11, 2014 .
  2. ↑ WORLD: Ulrike Maier: When she died, the ski racer fell uphill . January 29, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed January 30, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Maier, Ulrike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maier, Ulli
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Rauris , Salzburg
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1994
Place of death Murnau , Germany