Mario Matt (born 9 April 1979) is an Austrian former
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 and
Olympic gold medalist.
Slalom racing career
Born in
Zams
Zams is a municipality in the district of Landeck in the Austrian state of Tyrol.
Geography
The Inn River runs through Zams, which is situated in the river's basin together with its neighbour town Landeck. The geographical location is . Here, th ...
,
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
, Matt made his World Cup debut in December
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
. He claimed 15 World Cup victories: 14 in slalom and one
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 ...
. Matt is also a 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, ...
in slalom, with titles in
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
and
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
. With a remarkably long career as a top slalom racer, he is the second oldest (after
André Myhrer, who won gold in
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
) to win an Olympic gold medal in slalom skiing (in
Sochi
Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...
at the
2014 Winter olympics
, ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'')
, nations = 88
, events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, athletes = 2,873
, opening = 7 February 2014
, closing = 23 February 2014
, opened_by = President Vladimir Putin
, cauldron =
, stadium = Fisht Olympic ...
)
[ and also the second oldest (after ]Dave Ryding
David Ryding (born 5 December 1986) is an English World Cup alpine ski racer who specialises in slalom. Widely considered to be the greatest British skier of all time, he has competed for Great Britain in four Olympics, seven World Championshi ...
) to win a (regular) World Cup slalom race. Matt also has the third longest time interval between first and last World Cup victories (13 years, 10 months, and 22 days), after Ingemar Stenmark
Jan Ingemar Stenmark (; born 18 March 1956) is a Swedish former World Cup alpine ski racer. He is regarded as one of the most prominent Swedish athletes ever, and as the greatest slalom and giant slalom specialist of all time. He competed fo ...
and Didier Cuche
Didier Cuche (born 16 August 1974) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland.
Career
Born in Le Pâquier, Neuchâtel, he competed in the downhill and super-G, along with the giant slalom. He won the World Cup downhill and super-G ...
.
Matt announced his retirement from ski racing on 12 March 2015.
World Cup results
Season standings
Race victories
* 15 wins – (14 SL, 1 SC)
* 42 podiums – (40 SL, 1 GS, 1 SC)
World Championships results
Olympic results
Business career
In 2009, Matt purchased the Krazy Kanguruh bar at the Arlberg resort St. Anton. He also runs a stable where he breeds Arabian horses.
Personal
Matt is the brother of skicross
Ski cross is a skiing competition which incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyle skiing with courses which include big-air jumps and high-banked turns. In spite of the fact that it is a timed racing event, it is often cons ...
competitor and Olympic silver winner Andreas Matt and fellow alpine skier Michael Matt.
See also
*List of Olympic medalist families
List of Olympic medalists families is a list of people grouped by family who are olympic medalists.
Summer Olympics
:
Winter Olympics
:
Summer and Winter Olympics
See also
* List of sport awards
* List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
...
References
External links
*
*
* '
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matt, Mario
1979 births
Austrian male alpine skiers
Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Olympic alpine skiers of Austria
Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Olympic medalists in alpine skiing
Olympic gold medalists for Austria
Sportspeople from Tyrol (state)
People from Zams
Living people
Recipients of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria
20th-century Austrian people
21st-century Austrian people