Ingemar Stenmark

Ingemar Stenmark ( born March 18, 1956 in Joesjö at Tärnaby ) is a former Swedish alpine skier.

With a total of 86 World Cup victories, which he achieved in his playing days from 1973 to 1989, he clearly leads to the FIS statistics and is the most successful alpine ski racers since the introduction of the World Cup 1967., The double Olympic champion Stenmark is also known as the " living legend of Tärnaby ".

Career

Stenmark won three times the overall World Cup, although he almost never took in downhill skiing. Once he drove down the legendary Streif to score in the combination. In his time, he was so outstanding, that alone presented the slalom and giant slalom success for winning the overall World Cup - but only slalom, giant slalom and downhill races and a few combinations for the World Cup were at that time considered, the competition Super -G was added later, so specialized downhill had little chance of winning the overall World Cup.

One of his biggest successes were the two gold medals at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. He could not defend this title, because he was not allowed to participate in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, since he had a professional license at this time.

Technology

Stenmark was an exceptional athlete. He drove very elegant and had his best years due to its unique technique hardly equal opponents. As a serious counterparty Gustav Thöni were at the beginning of his career, Heini Hemmi 1976/77 in the Giant Slalom and the beginning of the 1980 Phil Mahre.

In addition to an excellent body control and an extremely strong intuitive feeling ski and snow awarded him a phenomenal balance. So he got into the many masterfully completed by him ski race almost never in danger of falling or actually fell. Stenmark trained this ability in his childhood in northern Sweden by stating hours acrobatic gymnastics on a rope stretched between two trees for training the sense of balance. The South Tyrolean Skiexperte Hermann Nogler first recognized the enormous potential of the young Swedish talent and was in the following years Stenmark coach and mentor.

Personality

Ingemar Stenmark was a sportsman of great fairness and was characterized by a high sporting ethos. This proves the following example: As Stenmark emerged as a Swedish Nobody in the ski circus, he received the prestigious ski companies do not support because you associate with Sweden Nordic skiing there and begin with a Swedish alpine skier knew nothing right. Only in the relatively unknown Yugoslav Elan Stenmark found a supplier. In gratitude Stenmark remained from the beginning to the end of his unparalleled career of this company loyal and denied all of his races exclusively on Elan skis - despite having received multimillion dollar offers from other companies, after he had risen to become a superstar. Stenmark remained a humble athlete, the mammonistic graces were contrary. Not least, these character traits are the reason that Stenmark still not only is the sport of alpine skiing idol, but generally a model for the serious sports youth is - particularly Sweden.

External expression of his character was his legendary consciously cultivated taciturnity in interviews, which should deter the guild of sports reporter. Therefore, he limited himself mostly to lapidary, only factual answers. Only towards the end of his career he was more out of themselves, let the conversation flashed his well known sense of humor sometimes by one or the other quip. It corresponded Stenmark temperament to express his personality through acts of expression rather than through words. It is this constant understatement, Stenmark made ​​sympathetic and popular in many, even non-sporting circles.

Achievements

Olympic games

• Innsbruck 1976: 3 Giant Slalom
• Lake Placid 1980: 1 Slalom, Giant Slalom 1
• Calgary 1988: 5th Slalom

World Championships

• St. Moritz 1974: 9 Giant Slalom
• Innsbruck 1976: 3 Giant Slalom
• Garmisch -Partenkirchen 1978: 1st Giant Slalom, Slalom 1
• Lake Placid 1980: 1 Slalom, Giant Slalom 1
• Schladming 1982: 1 Slalom, Giant Slalom 2nd
• Bormio 1985: 4th Slalom
• Crans -Montana 1987: 5 Slalom, Giant Slalom 10
• Vail 1989: 6 Giant Slalom

World Cup

• 3 x overall World Cup winner (1976, 1977, 1978 )
• 8 x giant slalom World Cup winner (1975, 1976, 1977 *, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984 )
• 8 x slalom World Cup winner (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983 )

* In discipline World Cup for the Giant Slalom achieved in the 1976/77 season Ingemar Stenmark and Heini Hemmi -evaluated each 115 points for their 5 best results (each 3 victories of 25 points and 2 second places à 20 points). The sixth best result was a third place, Ingemar Stenmark for a sixth place for Heini Hemmi. According ski DB so the giant slalom crystal globe was only awarded to Heini Hemmi and not to Ingemar Stenmark, but both are out on the first place in today's FIS statistics.

Ingemar Stenmark won a total of 86 World Cup races (46 giant slalom, slalom 40 ):

Giant Slalom

Slalom

European Junior Championships

• Jasna 1974: 1st Giant Slalom

Swedish Championships

Ingemar Stenmark was nine times Swedish Champion:

• Slalom: 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979
• Giant Slalom: 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979

Honors

Ingemar Stenmark is next to Anja Parson and Björn Borg is the only athlete to be honored twice with the prestigious Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal - (1975, 1978). He also received in 1979 the Holmenkollen medal in 1979 and 1980 and was honored with the Radiosportens Jerringpris. From 1977 to 1979, he was honored by the International Association of Ski Journalists three times in a row with the Skieur d'Or.