Thomas Sykora (born 18 May 1968) is a former

alpine ski ''Alpine Ski'' (アルパイン・スキ一) is an Alpine skiing arcade game, released by Taito in 1981. The player controls a skier, who can move left, right, or increase forward speed. The aim is to maneuver a skier through a downhill ski cour ...

er from

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Biography

Thomas comes from a sporting family: his father Ernst Sykora was a ski instructor, and his aunts

Liese Prokop Liesel "Liese" Prokop-Sykora (27 March 1941 – 31 December 2006) was an Austrian athlete who competed mainly in the pentathlon and, later in her life, a politician. Biography Born as Liese Sykora in Tulln District, Lower Austria, o ...

and Maria Sykora were both successful athletes. He competed at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...

and the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

, winning a bronze medal at the latter. Sykora won the 1996/97 and 1997/98 Slalom World Cups. Before winning these 2 World Cups, he finished second of the competition in 1994 in Lech. After finishing first in the first round, he eventually was beaten by

Alberto Tomba Alberto Tomba (born 19 December 1966 in San Lazzaro di Savena) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Italy. He was the dominant technical skier (slalom and giant slalom) in the late 1980s and 1990s. At 182 cm and 90 kg, his powerful ...

by 2 hundredths of a second after the second round. In total, Thomas won nine World Cup races. At the Olympic Games 1998 in

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

, he won the bronze medal in slalom. In 1996 and 1999 he also became Austrian slalom champion. After numerous knee injuries, Thomas Sykora was forced to quit his career and became an ORF commentator. He started commenting on women's races in 2000. Later, he served as commentator in important men's slaloms (Kitzbühel, Schladming). On most of the races he comments, Thomas wears a helmet with a camera to show the spectators the different routes of the slalom, and their difficulties. After the end of his active career as an athlete, he decided to study mental coaching in

Bregenz Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switze ...

; he then graduated with an MBA.

World Cup victories

Overall results

Individual victories

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sykora, Thomas 1968 births Living people Austrian male alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic alpine skiers of Austria Olympic medalists in alpine skiing FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Austria People from Tulln an der Donau