Katja Seizinger

Katja Seizinger has been the top female power skiier of the 1990s. At the Olympics, her five medals and three gold medals were both records, matched first by Vreni Schneider and then bettered by Janica Kostelić among women. Seizinger won the downhill in 1994 and 1998, becoming the first person, man or woman, to defend the Olympic downhill title. She added a third gold in the alpine combined in 1998 at Nagano. Her other Olympic medals were bronze in the Super-G in 1992 and in the giant slalom in 1998.

She was less successful in the World Championships, winning only the 1993 Super-G. However, she posted a remarkable record in the World Cup events, winning 36 times to the end of the 1998 season, trailing only Austria’s Annemarie Moser-Pröll (62) and Schneider (54). She was overall World Cup champion in 1996 and 1998, and won the following individual World Cup titles: Super-G – 1993-96 and 1998, and downhill – 1992-94 and 1998. Since 1999 she is married to Kai-Uwe Weber, and raised two children. She also worked in the company of her father, a steal plant.