Rosi Mittermaier
Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox alpine ski racer
Rosa Anna Katharina Mittermaier-Neureuther (Template:IPA; Template:Née Mittermaier; 5 August 1950 – 4 January 2023) was a German alpine skier. She was the overall World Cup champion in 1976 and a double gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics.<ref name=sr>Template:Cite Sports-Reference</ref>
Mittermaier competed in alpine skiing from 1967 to 1976, retiring after a highly successful season in which she finished with two Olympic gold medals and ranked first in the World Cup. She remained popular, advertising for sports and as a non-fiction writer. She was known as Gold-Rosi, and she was inducted into Germany's Sports Hall of Fame in April 2006 when it was initiated.
Life and career
Mittermaier was born in Munich<ref name="Leidinger 2023">Template:Cite web</ref> and grew up in Reit im Winkl on the Template:Ill.<ref name="BR" /> Her father had run there the Passauer Hütte.<ref name="Mittermaier 2012 p. ">Template:Cite book</ref> A certified skiing instructor, he also owned a skiing school from 1966,<ref name="mdr.de – Radio, Fernsehen, Nachrichten für Mitteldeutschland MDR.DE 2023">Template:Cite web</ref> and was the first to train his daughters.<ref name="OVB">Template:Cite web</ref>
Racing career
Mittermaier made her World Cup debut in the inaugural season of 1967,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and won her first World Cup race two seasons later.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
She won two gold medals (downhill and slalom)<ref name="Newspapers.com 1976">Template:Cite news</ref> and one silver (giant slalom) at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.<ref name=octh>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name=outgg>Template:Cite news</ref> Her victory in the Olympic downhill was the only downhill win in her international career.<ref name="Olympics.com 2018" /> Mittermaier was the most successful athlete at those games, along with cross-country skier Raisa Smetanina of the Soviet Union, earning her the nickname of Gold-Rosi within Germany (then West Germany).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In addition to the overall World Cup title, she also won the season title in slalom and combined in 1976. After winning both races at Copper Mountain in Colorado to wrap up the overall and slalom titles,<ref name=mmwwc>Template:Cite news</ref> the four-year-old resort immediately named the race course run after her.<ref name=rhrnfh>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=aatttt>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In addition to her success in international competition, she also won 16 German national titles during her career.<ref name=si />
On 31 May 1976, she retired from international competition at age 25, following the very successful 1976 season.<ref name=groor>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Solutions 2020">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="The New York Times 1976">Template:Cite web</ref>
After racing
After her career in sports, Mittermaier joined Mark McCormack's International Management Group as the only German alongside Jean-Claude Killy, Jackie Stewart, and Björn Borg.<ref name="Kaiser">Template:Cite news</ref> During her three-year contract, she designed a collection of winter sports clothing and made international appearances for various skiing products.<ref name="Spiegel">Template:Cite news</ref> She wrote non-fiction books, often together with her husband.<ref name="Solutions 2020" /> She worked for several charities and occasionally as a commentator for German television for major sporting events. She established a charitable foundation to aid children with rheumatism in 2000.<ref name=si /><ref name="Solutions 2020" />
Personal life and death
Mittermaier was born with a twin sister who died at birth. Her younger sister Evi Mittermaier also competed as an alpine skier and previously lived in a hotel.<ref name=si>Template:Cite web</ref> Rosi and Evi also recorded two albums of Bavarian folk songs together.<ref name=si />
In 1980 she married Christian Neureuther, winner of six World Cup slalom races.<ref name="Nachrichten 2023">Template:Cite web</ref> They are the parents of Felix Neureuther (b. 1984), a World Cup ski racer for Germany,<ref name="Zeitung 2023">Template:Cite web</ref> and a daughter Ameli who works as a fashion designer.<ref name="Deutschlandfunk Kultur 2013">Template:Cite web</ref>
Mittermaier died because of cancer in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 4 January 2023, at the age of 72 years.<ref name="BR">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="AP NEWS 2023">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her mortal remains were cremated and the urn was buried at the cemetery of Garmisch. Next to her gravestone - a rock, which bears the inscription "Rosi Mittermaier-Neureuther" and resembles a mountain - is a similar one without inscription, which is obviously reserved for her husband.
Awards
- 1976 German Sportswoman of the Year<ref name="Solutions 2020" /><ref name="Hall of Fame">Template:Cite web</ref>
- 1999 Olympic Order<ref name="Hall of Fame" />
- 2001 Goldene Sportpyramide of the Template:Ill<ref name="Solutions 2020" />
- 2005 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany<ref name="Hall of Fame" />
- 2006 Germany's Sports Hall of Fame<ref name="Hall of Fame" />
- 2007 Bavarian Order of Merit<ref name="Solutions 2020" /><ref name="Hall of Fame" />
She was an honorary citizen's of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Reit im Winkl.<ref name="Solutions 2020" />
World Cup results
Season standings
Source:<ref name="Homepage 2018">Template:Cite web</ref>
| Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant slalom |
Super G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | 16 | 27 | 19 | — | not run |
— | not awarded |
| 1968 | 17 | 12 | 11 | 8 | — | ||
| 1969 | 18 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 5 | ||
| 1970 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 10 | 12 | ||
| 1971 | 20 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 15 | ||
| 1972 | 21 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 10 | ||
| 1973 | 22 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 9 | ||
| 1974 | 23 | 7 | 2 | 13 | 11 | ||
| 1975 | 24 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 6 | ||
| 1976 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
Points were only awarded for top ten finishes (see scoring system).
Season titles
| Season | Discipline |
|---|---|
| 1976 | Overall |
| Slalom | |
| Combined |
Race victories
| Season | Date | Location | Discipline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | 16 January 1969 | Template:Flagicon Schruns, Austria | Slalom |
| 1970 | 14 March 1970 | Template:Flagicon Voss, Norway | Slalom |
| 1973 | 2 February 1973 | Template:Flagicon Schruns, Austria | Slalom |
| 1974 | 27 February 1974 | Template:Flagicon Abetone, Italy | Slalom |
| 8 March 1974 | Template:Flagicon Vysoké Tatry, Czechoslovakia | Slalom | |
| 1975 | 13 December 1974<ref name="Newspapers.com 1974">Template:Cite news</ref> | Template:Flagicon Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy | Slalom |
| 1976 | 17 December 1975 | Combined | |
| 22 January 1976 | Template:Flagicon Bad Gastein, Austria | Slalom | |
| 5 March 1976 | Template:Flagicon Copper Mountain, United States | Giant slalom | |
| 6 March 1976 | Slalom |
World championship results
Source:<ref name="Homepage 2018" />
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant slalom |
Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 17 | DNF2 | 20 | not run | 25 | — |
| 1970 | 19 | 15 | 7 | 20 | 5 | |
| 1972 | 21 | 17 | 12 | 6 | 7 | |
| 1974 | 23 | 6 | DNF | DNF | — | |
| 1976 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the World Championships for alpine skiing.
At the World Championships from 1954 through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).
Olympic results
Source:<ref name="Olympics.com 2018">Template:Cite web</ref>
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant slalom |
Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 17 | DNF2 | 20 | not run | 25 | not run |
| 1972 | 21 | 17 | 12 | 6 | ||
| 1976 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Publications
Many of her books were written with her husband Christian Neureuther:<ref name="Solutions 2020" />
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See also
Notes
References
Further reading
Biographies
Obituaries
External links
Template:S-start Template:S-ach Template:Succession box Template:S-end Template:Navboxes
- Pages with broken file links
- 1950 births
- 2023 deaths
- German female alpine skiers
- Olympic alpine skiers for West Germany
- Olympic gold medalists for West Germany
- Olympic silver medalists for West Germany
- Olympic medalists in alpine skiing
- Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiers at the 1976 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiers at the 1972 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiers at the 1968 Winter Olympics
- Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions
- People from Traunstein (district)
- Skiers from Upper Bavaria
- 20th-century German sportswomen