Hanni Wenzel

Hanni Wenzel
 Alpine skier 
Disciplines Downhill, Super G,
Giant Slalom, Slalom,
Combined
Born (1956-12-14) 14 December 1956
Straubing, West Germany
Height 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
World Cup debut 1 March 1972 (age 15)
Retired March 1984 (age 27)
Website wwp-group.com
Olympics
Teams 2 – (1976, 1980)
Medals 4 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams 5 – (197482)
includes two Olympics
Medals 9 (4 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 13 – (197284)
Wins 33
Podiums 89
Overall titles 2 – (1978, 1980)
Discipline titles 5 – (2 GS, 1 SL, 2 K)

Hannelore (Hanni) Wenzel[1] (born 14 December 1956) is a former alpine ski racer from Liechtenstein, an Olympic, World Cup, and world champion. She won the country's first Olympic medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.[2][3][4]

Born in Straubing, West Germany, Wenzel moved to Liechtenstein at an early age. After she and her younger brother Andreas had success in ski racing – Hanni won the gold medal in slalom and silver in the combined at the 1974 World Championships – the family was granted Liechtenstein citizenship. At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, she won the country's first Olympic medal, a bronze in the slalom at Axamer Lizum, and also picked up another world championship medal in the combined.

After winning the World Cup overall title in 1978, Wenzel's best year came in 1980. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, she won gold medals in the slalom and giant slalom, and just missed out on a sweep by taking the silver in the downhill at Whiteface Mountain. She also easily won the world championship gold medal in the combined event, its final edition as a "paper race" and her fourth world championship medal in that event. At the same Olympics, her brother also won a silver medal, placing Liechtenstein high in the medal ranking of the games. In addition to her Olympic success, she won nine World Cup races in 1980 and captured the overall, giant slalom, and combined season titles, and brother Andreas won the men's overall for a Wenzel family sweep of the overall titles.

Wenzel was banned from the 1984 Winter Olympics by the International Ski Federation (FIS) for accepting promotional payments directly, rather than through the national ski federation. Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden was also banned; both were double gold medalists in 1980.[5][6][7]

Wenzel retired following the 1984 season with two Olympic titles, four World titles, two overall World Cups, three discipline World Cups plus three combined titles, and 33 World Cup victories. (Through 1980, the Olympics were also the World Championships.)

Through the 2014 Winter Olympics, Liechtenstein has won a total of nine medals at the Winter Olympics, with eight won by two sets of siblings – the Wenzels earned six, while brothers Willi and Paul Frommelt are responsible for two more.

World cup results

Season standings

Season Age Overall Slalom Giant
Slalom
Super G Downhill Combined
1972 15 40 27 not
run
not
awarded
1973 16 5 6 3 18
1974 17 3 4 1 16
1975 18 2 2 5 12
1976 19 9 9 13 16 6
1977 20 5 5 8 11 not
awarded
1978 21 1 1 2 15
1979 22 2 5 2 10
1980 23 1 2 1 3 1
1981 24 3 6 3 9 2
1982 25 19 9 14
1983 26 2 4 5 not
awarded
1
1984 27 2 7 5 3 4

Season titles

7 titles – (2 overall, 2 giant slalom, 1 slalom, 2 combined)

Season Discipline
1974 Giant Slalom
1978 Overall
Slalom
1980 Overall
Giant Slalom
Combined
1983 Combined

Individual races

Season Date Location Discipline
1974 19 Dec 1973 Austria Zell am See, Austria Giant Slalom
1975 21 Feb 1975 Japan Naeba, Japan Slalom
14 Mar 1975 United States Sun Valley, USA Slalom
1977 19 Jan 1977 Austria Schruns, Austria Combined
1978 15 Dec 1977 Italy Madonna di Campiglio, Italy Giant Slalom
10 Jan 1978 Switzerland Les Mosses, Switzerland Giant Slalom
22 Jan 1978 Slovenia Maribor, Slovenia Slalom
24 Jan 1978 West Germany Berchtesgaden, West Germany Slalom
25 Jan 1978 Slalom
2 Mar 1978 United States Stratton Mountain, USA Giant Slalom
1979 12 Dec 1978 Italy Piancavallo, Italy Giant Slalom
3 Feb 1979 West Germany Pfronten, West Germany Slalom
4 Feb 1979 Combined
8 Feb 1979 Slovenia Maribor, Slovenia Slalom
1980 8 Dec 1979 Italy Limone Piemonte, Italy Giant Slalom
14 Dec 1979 Combined
10 Jan 1980 West Germany Berchtesgaden, West Germany Giant Slalom
16 Jan 1980 Switzerland Arosa, Switzerland Giant Slalom
21 Jan 1980 Austria Bad Gastein, Austria Slalom
Combined
23 Jan 1980 Slovenia Maribor, Slovenia Slalom
26 Jan 1980 France Saint-Gervais, France Giant Slalom
United States 1980 Winter Olympics
25 Feb 1980 United States Waterville Valley, USA Giant Slalom
1981 27 Jan 1981 France Les Gets, France Combined
8 Feb 1981 West Germany Zwiesel, West Germany Combined
1982 12 Dec 1981 Italy Piancavallo, Italy Combined
18 Mar 1982 Japan Furano, Japan Giant Slalom
1983 30 Jan 1983 Switzerland Les Diablerets, Switzerland Combined
1984 21 Dec 1983 Austria Haus im Ennstal, Austria Downhill
22 Dec 1983 Giant Slalom
14 Jan 1984 Austria Bad Gastein, Austria Downhill
15 Jan 1984 Combined
20 Mar 1984 West Germany Zwiesel, West Germany Slalom

Family

Wenzel is a sister of Olympic alpine skiers Petra Wenzel and Andreas Wenzel, and the wife of Austrian ski racer Harti Weirather, the 1982 world champion in downhill. Wenzel and Weirather run their own sports marketing agency. Their daughter Tina Weirather is also an Olympic alpine skier.[4][8]

References

  1. Alpine skiing: Weirather to miss Olympic Games through injury at the Wayback Machine (archived 10 March 2010). vancouver2010.com. 23 January 2010
  2. Steamboat Today: Olympic history: Winter games in the 1980s. steamboatpilot.com/ 13 February 2010
  3. Hanni Wenzel. The official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games]
  4. 1 2 "Hanni Wenzel". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC.
  5. "Ski stars banned from Olympics". Ottawa Citizen. Reuters. 26 November 1983. p. 71.
  6. "Ruling slaps Stenmark". Bend (OR) Bulletin. UPI. 7 November 1983. p. D-4.
  7. "Winter Olympics will take place without three alpine skiers". Palm Beach Post. wire services. 25 January 1984. p. D4.
  8. Hanni WENZEL at the Wayback Machine (archived 3 March 2012). fisalpine.com

External links


Preceded by
Marita Koch
United Press International
Athlete of the Year

1980
Succeeded by
Chris Evert Lloyd
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.