Christian Mayer (skier)

Christian Mayer (born 10 January 1972 in Villach, Carinthia ) is an Austrian former alpine skier. He counted during several years of the best Giant Slalom skiers, but also scored in the slalom and Super-G good success. In his 15 years of career World Cup Mayer celebrated seven wins, six of them in the Giant Slalom and Super-G. In the 1993/1994 season he decided the giant slalom World Cup itself. For Olympic Winter Games the two-time Austrian champion won a bronze medal each in the giant slalom in 1994 and 1998 in combination; at World Championships he won a bronze medal in the slalom in 1999 also.

Career

Christian Mayer was included in the junior squad of the Austrian Ski Federation ( Austrians ) in 1987 and rose a year later on in the European Cup squad. After initial successes in this series, the graduate of Skihandelsschule Schladming was included in the World Cup team in 1990. In April 1991, Mayer won at the Junior World Championships in Norway silver in super-G and bronze in the combination. In the winter of 1991/1992 he then reached his first top- 10 finishes in the World Cup and also qualified for the Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, where he was twelfth in the giant slalom. He was Austrian Champion in Giant Slalom and in combination in 1992.

After the winter 1992/1993 top rankings were failed - also for the World Championships in Morioka he could not qualify - the Carinthian increased in the 1993/1994 season on the best giant slalom skier. On 13 December 1993 he won in Val d'Isere his first World Cup race and another four podiums Mayer decided by only two points ahead of Norwegian Kjetil André Aamodt the giant slalom World Cup itself. In the World Cup he finished eleventh. At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer Mayer in the first giant slalom passage still in the lead, but with the tenth maturity in the second round, he fell back to third overall place. In the combination, he left. The successes of the past year could not repeat Mayer in 1994/1995. Only twice he came in the top ten, even as third in the giant slalom in Alta Badia on the podium. Even in winter 1995/1996, he was only once as second in the slalom at Park City on the podium, but he was able to regularly place back in the top ten, which he reached eighth place in the slalom World Cup and eleventh place in the giant slalom World Cup. He scored top-10 results even with the shifted by one year World Cup in the Sierra Nevada, where he was sixth in the giant slalom and ninth in slalom. Less successful was again the 1996/1997 season, in which he at several times in the top ten drove, but remained without a podium finish. At the World Cup 1997 in Sestriere he missed as fourth in the combination only just a medal in the Super- G, he was tenth.

After three winless years, Mayer took from the 1997/1998 season back to winning ways back. On 21 December 1997, he won on the Gran Risa in Alta Badia his second World Cup giant slalom and two weeks later when Vitranc Cup in Kranjska Gora, the third victory. He reached in the giant slalom World Cup behind Hermann Maier and Michael of Grünigen third place in the World Cup and also finished ninth. At the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano in 1998, he remained in his strongest discipline, the giant slalom in ninth behind expectations, in the slalom, however, he scored with fifth place his best result of the season and in the combination he won behind Mario Reiter and Lasse Kjus the bronze medal. In the 1998/1999 season Mayer was successful not only in the giant slalom, but also in the slalom and especially in the super-G. At the start of the season he was third in Aspen for the first time in this discipline on the podium and after a second place at the Patscherkofel near Innsbruck - the legendary nine -fold victory of the Austrian team, he was beaten only by Hermann Maier - won Christian Mayer on March 11, 1999 Super -G in the Spanish Sierra Nevada. In the final evaluation it reached number four in the Super- G World Cup, fifth in the giant slalom World Cup and seventh place in the overall World Cup. In the 1999 World Cup in Vail / Beaver Creek, he won two Olympic medals now after his first World Championship medal for third place in the slalom - just two hundredths of a second behind second-placed Lasse Kjus. He also finished fourth in the combination and eighth in the giant slalom. In the super -G Mayer was only a spectator, because despite its two already achieved before the World Cup podium finishes he got due to the density in the Austrian Super -G team not the four starting positions. In the season 1999/2000 Mayer reached again good results across the board. But this time the giant slalom was clearly his strongest discipline again. While he was able to record its best result in slalom and Super -G depending fifth place, he won the giant slalom three races, on 22 December 1999 in Saalbach -Hinterglemm, on 8 March 2000 in Kranjska Gora, on 11 March in Hinterstoder. In the giant slalom World Cup he was only of Hermann Maier, who also won three races, but could produce more podiums, beaten three brief points to; in the World Cup he finished eighth.

The 2000/2001 season began Mayer even with two fifth places in the giant slalom in Soelden, and Park City, but then dropped his achievements back clear and he came rarely into the top 15 reasons were the one hand, health problems, on the other hand, he could adjust only hard on the new carving technique. As a result of his poor performance, he failed not only the World Championships in St. Anton, but was downgraded by the national team in the A-team of the Austrian Ski Federation. In the coming years, Mayer came only in the giant slalom World Cup to inserts. After he had indeed again scored in the 2001/2002 season three top 10 places, but the second was missing at the Olympic Games times in a row at a major event, he was able to increase again in the winter of 2002/2003 and reached two second places in Park City and Kranjska Gora and a third place in Alta Badia the seventh place in the giant slalom World Cup. This participation in the 2003 World Cup in St. Moritz, nothing stood in the way, but where he ranked 14th in the giant slalom with its upward trend could not continue. In the World Cup he could not keep up with the tip of it. In the 2003/2004 season he went twice in the top ten, but after he had to fight in the next two years again with health problems and only won two World Cup points, gave the 34 -year-old on 9 March 2006 after 15 years known in the World Cup his retirement from ski racing.

Another career

After the end of his active career Mayer completed a course in Sport Management at the University of Klagenfurt. Since September 2006 he works for the Slovenian ski company Elan, which operates a production site in the Carinthian Finke stone, in the areas of development, testing and marketing. In addition, he is also active in development and testing for the Italian ski boot manufacturer Dalbello, organizes events for companies and in cooperation with the Kleine Zeitung Racing Camps for children.

Since 2007, Mayer is engaged in Skiübertragungen as camera runner and co- commentator for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ( ORF). In the years 2008 and 2010 he participated in the ORF football show " The Match". Since December 2007, the amateur footballer is chairman of the Krumpendorfer Sports Club Wörthersee - the club his new home community Krumpendorf am Wörthersee. In his spare time he is also an active golfer, his foray into motorsports ended Mayer after an accident again.

Sporting successes

Olympic Winter Games

  • 1992 Albertville: 12 Giant Slalom
  • Lillehammer 1994: 3 Giant Slalom
  • Nagano 1998: 3 combination, 5 Slalom, Giant Slalom 9

World Championships

  • Sierra Nevada 1996: 6 Giant Slalom, Slalom 9
  • Sestriere 1997: 4 combination, 10 Super -G
  • Vail / Beaver Creek 1999: 3rd slalom, fourth combination, 8 Giant Slalom
  • St. Moritz 2003: 14 Giant Slalom

Junior World Championships

  • Zinal 1990: 5 Giant Slalom, Downhill 6, 20, Super -G
  • Geilo 1991: 2 Super -G, 3rd combination, 5 Giant Slalom, Slalom 8, 11 departure

World Cup

Individual World Cup victories

Mayer won seven World Cup races and was 16 times more on the podium. Overall, it reached 67 top 10 finishes.

Austrian Championships

  • Austrian champion in giant slalom and combined in 1992

Awards

Slalom skiing Alpine skiing combined Winter Olympic Games Alpine skiing at the 1994 Winter Olympics Alpine skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1999 World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships 1999 Alpine Skiing World Cup 2000 Alpine Skiing World Cup 1994 Alpine Skiing World Cup 1996 Alpine Skiing World Cup 1992 Alpine Skiing World Cup 1993 Alpine Skiing World Cup 1995 Alpine Skiing World Cup Park City (Utah) Sierra Nevada (Spain) 1997 Alpine Skiing World Cup FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1997 1998 Alpine Skiing World Cup Municipality of Kranjska Gora Nagano, Nagano Aspen (Colorado) Vail (Colorado) Beaver Creek Resort 2001 Alpine Skiing World Cup Carve turn 2002 Alpine Skiing World Cup 2003 Alpine Skiing World Cup FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2003 Sportmanagement Elan (company) Alpine skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics France Italy
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