Maria Höfl-Riesch (; née Riesch, born 24 November 1984) is a former German

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

alpine ski racer. She is a three-time

Olympic champion This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Winter Olympic sports A. Including military patrol e ...

, two-time

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, and an overall World Cup champion. Höfl-Riesch made her World Cup debut in February 2001 and won gold medals in slalom and

super combined Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. A traditional combined competition consists of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom, each discipline runs on separate days. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. (Until the 1990s, ...

at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gret ...

. She won the

overall title in 2011. At the 2014 Winter Olympics, she defended her

title to win her third Olympic gold medal, and also won a silver medal in the

super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event d ...

Career

Born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Höfl-Riesch was a prodigious talent as a junior and won seven medals in all of the disciplines at four Junior World Championships, including three gold medals in combined and super-G. As the racing careers of

Martina Ertl-Renz Martina Maria Ertl-Renz (born 12 September 1973) is a German former alpine skier. She was two times world champion and also won several medals at Olympic Winter Games and World Championships. Biography Martina Ertl is the sister of the German alp ...

and

Hilde Gerg Mathilde Gerg (born 19 October 1975) is a German former alpine skier. Career She was Olympic Champion in the Slalom at the 1998 Winter Olympics, an astounding win as most of her career she was known as predominantly a speed specialist; with 1998 ...

concluded, Höfl-Riesch rose as the leading female racer on the German national team. Injuries cut short her seasons in 2005 and 2006, causing her to miss the 2005 World Championships and the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...

. During the 2009 season, Höfl-Riesch won four slalom events on the World Cup tour and won the gold medal in the slalom at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. Prior to 2009, her most successful season was in 2004, when she finished third in the overall World Cup standings, with three race victories. She also finished third in the overall standings in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. In the 2007 season she won her second downhill race, at Lake Louise, Canada. Riesch won two gold medals at the

, in the

and slalom. After finishing second in the overall World Cup standings in 2009 and 2010, Riesch built a big lead early in the 2011 season which was enough to win the overall title, besting three-time defending champion

Lindsey Vonn Lindsey Caroline Vonn ( ; born October 18, 1984) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer on the US Ski Team. She won four World Cup overall championships — second only amongst female skiers to Annemarie Moser-Pröll — with three ...

of the U.S. by just three points. At the World Cup finals in

Lenzerheide Lenzerheide ( Romansh: ''Lai'') is a mountain resort in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland at the foot of the Parpaner Rothorn. The village lies in the municipality Vaz/Obervaz in the district of Albula, sub-district Alvaschein. The ...

, Vonn took the overall lead after the downhill, then Riesch reclaimed it after the slalom; the super-G and giant slalom races were cancelled due to poor conditions. She retired after the

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

season after crashing in the downhill World Cup Final.

Personal

Höfl-Riesch is also a nationally ranked tennis player and a cyclist. Her younger sister, Susanne Riesch, is also a former World Cup ski racer, specializing in the slalom. Her uncle, Wolfgang Zimmerer was a

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

der during the 1960s and 1970s and competed for

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

in the Winter Olympics, winning gold with Peter Utzschneider at the Two-man bobsleigh during the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 ( ja, 札幌1972), was a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Euro ...

. She has been a chief constable in the

Bundeszollverwaltung The Bundeszollverwaltung (Federal Customs Service) is the customs service of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is also the executive and fiscal administrative unit of the federal government and part of the Federal Ministry of Finance. It wa ...

(German Federal Customs Service) during her sports career. One of her closest friends (and major rival) on the World Cup tour was

of the United States. Höfl-Riesch married her manager Marcus Höfl on 14 April 2011. At a height of , she was one of the tallest women on the World Cup circuit.

World Cup results

Season titles

* 6 titles – (1 overall, 1

downhill Downhill may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse * ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...

, 1

, 2 slalom, 1 combined)

Season standings

Source:

Race victories

* 27 wins – (11 DH, 3 SG, 9 SL, 4 SC) + 1 NTE

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

* *
Photo report: Celebrating Maria Riesch
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hofl-Riesch, Maria 1984 births German female alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Olympic alpine skiers of Germany Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in alpine skiing Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic silver medalists for Germany FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Sportspeople from Garmisch-Partenkirchen Living people