Athlete Bios
Alpine Skiing
1 goal remains for Walchhofer: Olympic gold
Last Updated: Friday, February 5, 2010 | 1:18 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Michael Walchhofer competes in a downhill World Cup event on Jan. 16, 2010. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)It is not easy becoming one of Austria's greatest alpine skiers ever.
One Austrian (Mathias Zdarsky) invented the sport, and two others (Georg Bilgeri and Toni Seelos) invented different types of turns that revolutionized it.
Others, such as Olympic downhill gold medallists Tony Sailer (1956), Franz Klammer (1976), Patrick Ortlieb (1992), and Fritz Strobl (2002), and the slalom/super-G specialist Hermann Maier (1998), are still revered as national icons in Austria.
Michael Walchhofer, 34, has a chance to join that fabled Austrian skiing pantheon, as he has done everything in his career but win Olympic gold.
Walchhofer won his first Olympic medal in the 2006 Turin Games, taking silver in the downhill. He also competed in the combined in Turin, but failed to finish the slalom portion to post a finish. He competed in the 2002 Salt Lake Games, but also was not able to finish his events.
He is expected to ski both downhill and combined events at Vancouver for the customarily deep Austrian team.
Walchhofer began his career as a slalom specialist, known for his technical abilities. He now competes exclusively in speed events, participating in downhill, super-G and combined.
He has found his biggest success in super-G and downhill in the World Cup and the world championships.
He won downhill gold at the 2003 world championships at St. Moritz, and took downhill bronze two years later at Bormio, Italy. Walchhofer also won silver in the world championships super-G on the notoriously icy Bormio course in 2005.
He lives in Altenmarkt, Austria, and trains in the alpine resort of Zauchensee.
Walchhofer, along with his five siblings and wife, Barbara, has also built his skiing success into a brand name in the two towns.
The Walchhofer family runs its own ski tourism business and owns two hotels, two apartment buildings and the Weltmeister (world champion) ski school.
