One of the great ski racers of the 1980s was born in Lustenau, Austria on July 18, 1963. Marc Girardelli won the overall World Cup title 5 times (1985, 1986, 1989, 1991 & 1993), the most on the Men’s side.
Although he was born in Austria, he spent his 16 year World Cup career racing for Luxembourg (1980-1996). He started racing as a kid for Austria until he was 12, but switched due to a coaching disagreement. Showing up on the World Cup Circuit in the era of discipline specialization, we became one of the rare competitors to compete and have success in all Alpine disciplines.
Started having success in slalom in 1983. In 1985 he won 11 races and captured the Slalom, Giant Slalom and Overall World Cup titles. I will always remember the Giradelli-Zurbriggen duals for Overall World Cup from 1984-1990 where they owned the Overall title. Zurbriggen retired in 1990 after winning 4 titles in those years, Girardelli tied the Swiss skier with his 4th titles the year after and surpassed the record 2 years later.
At the time of his first downhill win in Kitzbuehel in 1989, we became only second racer, after Pirmin Zurbriggen, to top the podium in each of the 4 disciplines during his career. Since that time, Günther Mader, Kjetil-André Aamodt andd Bode Miller are the only 3 other racers that have accomplished this feat.
The only feat missing is an Olympic Gold Medal. Giradelli didn’t have a Luxembourg citizenship and couldn’t compete until the 1988 Olympics. He won 2 silvers at the 1992 Albertville Games. He’s won Gold medals World Champions in Slalom (1987) and the Combined (1989, 1991 & 1996) and a total of 11 World Championship medals starting in 1985.
This week’s feature is a video bio of Marc Girardelli (in German):
Marc Girardelli’s Career:
5 Overall World Cup (1985, 1986, 1989, 1991 & 1993).
3 Slalom World Cup (1985, 1986 & 1991)
1 Giant Slalom World Cup (1985)
2 Downhill World Cup (1989 & 1992)
3 Combined World Cup (1989, 1993 & 1995)
46 victories (3 in Downhill, 9 in Super G, 7 in GS, 16 in Slalom and 11 in the Combined).
101 podiums (17 in Downhill, 18 in Super G, 26 in GS, 25 in Slalom, 14 in the Combined and 1 parallel (3rd place in Bromont, Québec).
Marc Girardelli between runs in the parallel competition at the 1986 World Cup Finals in Bromont, Québec.
Sources:
Facts and Figures on Ski DB
FIS website
Wikipedia page
Marc Girardelli’s website
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