Patrick Thaler
Patrick Thaler (born 23 March 1978 in Bolzano ) is an Italian alpine skier. The special discipline of the South Tyrolean is the slalom, at the beginning of his career he was also in the giant slalom at the start.
Biography
Thaler was already at the age of two years for the first time on skis and even as a child was Italian Champion in his age group. He was inducted into the South Tyrolean provincial squad in 1993 and came to the C - squad of the Italian Winter Sports Federation two years later. In 1997 he was drafted into the Italian national team.
After initial successes in FIS races Patrick Thaler launched in January 1997 for the first time in the European Cup. He celebrated his first victory in 2003 and decided in the season 2003/2004 the slalom rating for themselves. Thaler took part in the Junior World Championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998 and won the silver medal in 1997 in the giant slalom. In the slalom race, he dropped out each time. On March 8, 1997 Thaler was the first time in the World Cup at the start. The first points he won on 6 January 1998 in the giant slalom in Saalbach -Hinterglemm, where he finished in 23rd place. Initially Thaler was in the World Cup almost exclusively in the giant slalom at the start, since the 2002/2003 season almost exclusively in the slalom. In both disciplines, he initially failed to qualify for the second run rarely. This changed after the 2004/2005 season after he had driven his last World Cup giant slalom in January 2005, he reached on 27 February 2005 with eighth place in the slalom in Kranjska Gora for the first time a place among the ten fastest.
After another top-10 results in the World Cup Thaler participated in the 2006 Olympics part in the slalom, but different in the first passage out. At the 2007 World Championships in Åre, he also had no success, even here he could not finish the first slalom run. 25 January 2009 Thaler reached its first and only podium finish in the World Cup when he was in the slalom in Kitzbuehel behind the two Frenchmen Julien Lizeroux and Jean -Baptiste Grange of third parties. Three weeks later, he scored in the 2009 World Championships in Val d'Isere is the only of the four Italians, who had not failed to seventh place.
From the beginning of 2010 dollars could no longer connect to its results in recent years. In addition to a loss in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, he could qualify for a second run in the World Cup increasingly rare. In the World Cup season 2010/2011 he succeeded even only once to qualify for the second run, which is why he could not qualify for the World Cup 2011 within the Italian team. After two fairly unsuccessful years Thaler has since the beginning of the 2011/2012 season to find in the world rankings. In the first three World Cup slalom races of the winter he went always into the top seven. He came four more times into the top 15, which he reached 16, as his best ever result in the slalom World Cup.
The World Cup season 2012/2013 started Thaler with a fifth place in the slalom in Levi - his best World Cup result since January 2009 On 15 December 2013, the program with 3rd place in Val d'Isere achieved the second podium of his career..
Achievements
World Championships
- Val d'Isere 2009: slalom 7
World Cup
- 2013/14 season: 4th slalom World Cup
- 3 podiums
European Cup
- 2003/2004 season: 1 slalom rating
- 9 podiums, including 6 victories:
Junior World Championships
- High -Ybrig 1996: 16 Giant Slalom
- Schladming 1997: 2 Giant Slalom
- Megève 1998: 5 Giant Slalom
Other successes
- Italian champion in giant slalom in 2002
- Italian junior champion in giant slalom in 1997
- 15 wins in FIS races