Tanja Tuulia Poutiainen (born 6 April 1980) is a retired

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 from Finland. She specialized in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom, and was the silver medalist in the women's giant slalom at 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 ...

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

. Born in

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; sme, Roavvenjárga ; smn, Ruávinjargâ; sms, Ruäʹvnjargg) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Per� ...

, Lapland, Poutiainen started skiing at the age of three. She became junior world champion in slalom in 1997 at

Schladming Schladming is a small former mining town in the northwest of the Austrian state of Styria that is now a popular tourist destination. It has become a large winter-sports resort and has held various skiing competitions, including most notably the F ...

, Austria, and also took bronze 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 ...

; she made her World Cup debut that March at

Vail Vail is a home rule municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 4,835 in 2020. Home to Vail Ski Resort, the largest ski mountain in Colorado, the town is known for its hotels, dining, and for the numer ...

in the United States. At the 1999 Junior World Championships, she placed third in the giant slalom at

Pra-Loup Pra-Loup is a ski resort in France, at Uvernet-Fours in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, from the town of Barcelonnette. Geography Ski area The ski station has two separate base areas, 2 km apart: * Pra-Loup 1600 - primary base area at above ...

, France. Poutiainen scored her first World Cup victory – and the first for a female Finnish alpine skier – on 28 February 2004 in a slalom held on home snow in Levi, Finland – the first alpine World Cup race to be held in the country. In the 2005

season, Poutiainen won the season titles in both the slalom and giant slalom, and placed fifth in the overall standings. Along the way she won three slaloms, a giant slalom and secured ten podium finishes. At the 2005 World Championships, she placed second in the giant slalom behind Anja Pärson of Sweden and second in the slalom behind

Janica Kostelić Janica Kostelić (; born 5 January 1982) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and four-time Olympic gold medalist from Croatia. In addition to the Olympics, she won five gold medals at the World Championships. In World Cup competition, she w ...

of Croatia – the first alpine World Championship medals for a Finnish female. The 2009 season saw Poutianen take another World Cup discipline title, in giant slalom, as well as bronzes in slalom and giant 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, ...

in Val d'Isère. Poutiainen was notable for her consistency, and between January 2007 and March 2011 she successfully completed every World Cup race she entered – a total of 67. At the end of 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, Poutiainen had 11 World Cup victories, 48 podiums, and three World Cup discipline titles. She was trained by Michael Bont and lives in

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website = ...

, Switzerland. She announced her retirement from the sport in March 2014.

World Cup results

Season titles

Season standings

Race victories

11 wins – (5 giant slalom, 6 slalom)

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

*
Tanja Poutianen
World Cup standings at the International Ski Federation * *
Fischer Skis
– Tanja Poutiainen * {{DEFAULTSORT:Poutiainen, Tanja 1980 births Finnish female alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Olympic alpine skiers for Finland Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in alpine skiing Olympic silver medalists for Finland FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Sportspeople from Rovaniemi Sportspeople from St. Gallen (city) Living people Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland