Rosi Mittermaier

Rosi Mittermaier had a long career in international skiing, winning 10 individual World Cup races between 1969 and 1976. In 1976, she was the World Champion in Alpine combined and led the overall World Cup, although she did not lead in any of the individual disciplines. She also earned three gold medals and one silver at World Championships.

Mittermaier participated at the 1968 Grenoble and the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics with lesser success, claiming a sixth place in the 1972 downhill as her best result. Her greatest fame came at the 1976 Olympic Winter Games when she won the slalom and downhill. With the giant slalom still to come, she had a chance to equal the feats of Toni Sailer and Jean-Claude Killy by winning all three available Alpine ski events. In the giant slalom, however, she finished second, losing out by 12/100th’s of a second to Canada’s Kathy Kreiner. Mittermaier was then elected Sportswoman of the Year.

Rosi Mittermaier later married Christian Neureuther, another German Olympic skier. Her sisters Evi and Heidi were also Olympic Alpine skiers. Rosi and Christian Neureuther raised two children; their daughter Ameli became a fashion designer, while their son Felix was one of Germany’s best slalom skiers. Felix married former cross-country skier and biathlete Miriam Gössner. Rosi and Christian frequently did color commentary on Alpine skiing events for German TV. Rosi was awarded the Olympic Order in silver in 1999, and she was inducted into the German Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.