Marc Girardelli (born 18 July 1963) is a former alpine ski racer, a five-time World Cup overall champion who excelled in all five alpine disciplines.
Girardelli was born in in Lustenau, Austria, started skiing at the age of five, and started racing at seven. After initially racing for Austria until 1976, he switched to racing for Luxembourg due to disagreements about coaching. In 1981, he started to make significant progress with his first podium (top-three finish) in Wengen, Switzerland, and from that moment was in contention for slalom and giant slalom podiums on a regular basis.
In 1983 he achieved his first victory in Sweden, but shortly thereafter he received his first major injury, when he tore all the ligaments in his left knee. In spite of this major injury, he went on to win five slalom races in 1984 and placed third in the overall World Cup standings.
In 1985, Girardelli won 11 races and the World Cup overall title. This was followed by another World Cup in 1986 and a third in 1989. After another major accident in 1990, in which he narrowly avoided paraplegia, he recovered to win the overall World Cup title again in 1991 and then in 1993 for a fifth time - an achievement which has yet to be equaled on the men's side (Annemarie Moser-Pröll won six women's World Cups). In total, Girardelli won 46 World Cup races (fourth-most of all time among men) and recorded 100 podiums.
Because Girardelli retained Austrian citizenship while skiing for Luxembourg, he was ineligible to compete in the 1980 or 1984 Winter Olympics. He received Luxembourg citizenship in time to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary but failed to win a medal. At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, however, he won silver medals in Super G and in giant slalom.
Girardelli won 11 World Championship medals, including 4 golds: (slalom at Saalbach in 1991 and combined at Crans-Montana in 1987, Vail Ski Resort in 1989, and Sierra Nevada in 1996).
His final World Cup race was in December 1996; he retired from international competition at age 33.
Famous quotes containing the word marc:
“Let us be realistic and demand the impossible.
[Soyons réalistes, demandons l’impossible.]”
—Graffito. Paris ‘68, ch. 2, Marc Rohan (1988)