Renate Götschl raced World Cup for Austria for 16 years, retiring after the 2008-09 season, and amassing one of the great records of any female skiier. Götschl won 46 World Cup races, fourth all-time (through 2013) after only Annemarie Moser-Pröll, Vreni Schneider, and Lindsay Vonn. Primarily a power racer, she stood on the podium 110 times in World Cup races, second all-time (thru 2013) to Moser-Pröll, 59 in downhill and 41 in Super-G. Götschl was overall World Cup champion in 1999-2000, and won 10 seasonal event World Cup championships – downhill in 1997, 1999, 2004-05, and 2007; Super-G in 2000, 2004, and 2007; and combined in 2000 and 2002. On 20 January 2007, Götschl won her 10th World Cup race in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, a record for wins at a single venue, later surpassed by Vonn at Lake Louise, Canada.
The biggest gap in Götschl’s career must be her failure to win an Olympic gold medal, despite competing at four Olympics. In 2002 at Salt Lake City she came home with a silver in the combined and a bronze in the downhill, her only Olympic medals. Her record at the World Championships was much more impressive as she won nine medals at Worlds, including three golds, with a combined gold at Sestriere in 1997, a downhill at Vail in 1999, and a team gold at Åre in 2007. She added four silver medals and two bronze medals between 1999-2007.
Götschl won two Austrian titles, in Super-G in 1995 and downhill in 1998, adding three junior national championships, in slalom, GS, and Super-G in 1993. She was Austrian Sportswoman of the Year in 1997 and 2005, and received a special meritorious award in 2009, as she ended her career. She was given a silver medal in 1997 and a gold medal in 2007 for services to the Republic of Austria.
Austria