Michael von Grünigen (born 11 April 1969) is a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
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* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
former alpine
skier
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IO ...
. He is considered to be the most successful Giant Slalom skier of his era:
In 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2003, he won the
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 ...
in
Giant Slalom
Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.
Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...
. In 1997 and 2001, he was World Champion in Giant Slalom. He took a total of 23 World Cup wins during his career. Having originally announced his retirement at the
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...
in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
, after failing to medal at the Games he elected to delay his retirement for a year, ending his competitive career in 2003.
Biography
Von Grünigen is originally from the
Bernese Highlands
The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...
of Switzerland, and comes from a skiing family: his parents were both ski instructors, and one of his three sisters is fellow alpine skier
Christine von Grünigen. He is married to Anna, and the couple have three children:
Noel, Elio and Lian.
Since retiring from competition, he has worked in a number of roles with his equipment sponsor,
Fischer
Fischer is a German occupational surname, meaning fisherman. The name Fischer is the fourth most common German surname. The English version is Fisher.
People with the surname A
* Abraham Fischer (1850–1913) South African public official
* Ad ...
, and also works with young skiers for the Swiss Ski Federation.
__NOTOC__
World Cup victories
World Cups
Individual races
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grunigen, Michael Von
1969 births
Living people
Swiss male alpine skiers
Olympic alpine skiers of Switzerland
Olympic bronze medalists for Switzerland
Alpine skiers at the 1992 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Olympic medalists in alpine skiing
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions
Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Sportspeople from the canton of Bern
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...