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Petra Kronberger

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Petra Kronberger
Personal information
Born (1969-02-21) 21 February 1969 (age 55)
St. Johann im Pongau, Austria
OccupationAlpine skier
Height1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Skiing career
DisciplinesSlalom, giant slalom, super-G,
Downhill, combined
ClubSC Werfenweng
World Cup debut20 March 1987 (age 18)
Retired28 December 1992 (age 23)
Olympics
Teams2 – (1988, 1992)
Medals2 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams2 – (1989, 1991)
Medals1 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons6 – (19881993)
Wins16
Podiums35
Overall titles3 – (1990, 1991, 1992)
Discipline titles1 – (SL: 1991)
Medal record
Women's alpine skiing
Representing  Austria
World Cup race podiums
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Slalom 3 1 4
Giant slalom 3 0 1
Downhill 6 2 2
Super-G 2 3 3
Combined 2 1 2
Total 16 7 12
International competitions
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 2 0 0
World Championships 1 0 0
Junior World Championships 0 1 0
Total 3 1 0
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1992 Albertville Slalom
Gold medal – first place 1992 Albertville Alpine combined
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1991 Saalbach Downhill
Junior World Ski Championships
Silver medal – second place 1987 Hemsedal Giant slalom

Petra Kronberger (born 21 February 1969) is an Austrian former alpine skier, who participated in all disciplines. She was the first female alpine skier to win in all five World Cup events.

Career

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Kronberger entered the World Cup circuit in the 1987/88 season. She gained several podiums and was expected to be a strong competitor at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. She did not win any medals there, but she did give a good performance for an athlete still in her teen years: she finished sixth in the downhill and eleventh in the combined.

Kronberger only won her first World Cup events, two downhill races, in December 1989, but by the end of that season, she had captured the World Cup overall title. This made her an instant hero in Austria: ever since that country's skiing star of the 1970s, Annemarie Pröll (later Moser-Pröll) had retired, the Swiss team had almost completely dominated the alpine world, which had long rankled the Austrian fans.

She successfully defended her World Cup overall champion title twice. Over the course of thirty-eight days in December 1990 and January 1991, Kronberger became the first skier in the modern era to win one race in each of the five alpine events in one season. Four of those wins in all but the combined came in the month of December alone, another notable feat.

At the 1991 World Championships she won a gold medal in her first event, the downhill, and was suspected to be able to win four more medals. However, she fell in her second event, the Super-G, and injured her right knee, forcing her to miss the rest of the races. (Despite her fall, she still finished sixth in that event.)

Her performances at the 1992 Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France, were even better. She won two gold medals, one in the slalom and one in the combined, and finished a respectable fourth (with only 0.01 sec. behind the podium) the Super-G, and fifth in the downhill.[1]

It was a great surprise when she retired as alpine skier on 25 December 1992, saying that she had lost her motivation.[citation needed]

After career

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Kronberger did catch up on her matriculation, did start studies in German philology and history of art at the university in the borough of Salzburg, did act as an assistant at a university. In later time she lived in Berlin and Hamburg. After dissolution she returned to the borough of Salzburg. She did work in adult vocational training and was an art guide in the "Salzburg Museum" (museum in Salzburg) and "Festung Hohensalzburg" ("Hohensalzburg Castle"), and she was a member of the Organizing Committee of the FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships 2013 at Schladming. She also is a singer in the "Salzburger Domchor" (cathedral choir at Salzburg) and the "KlangsCala" (a famous chamber choir in Salzburg). Since November 2015 she is employed at the Austrian Skiing Federation, and since 16 January 2016 she is a "Frauenbeauftragte" (maybe translated as commissioner for women's affairs) there (cit. the German Wikipedia).

World Cup victories

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Overall

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Season Discipline
1990 Overall
1991 Overall
1991 Slalom
1992 Overall

Individual races

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Date Location Race
16 December 1989 Canada Panorama Downhill
17 December 1989 Canada Panorama Downhill
8 January 1990 Austria Hinterstoder Giant slalom
14 January 1990 Austria Haus im Ennstal Combined
28 January 1990 Italy Santa Caterina Giant slalom
13 March 1990 Sweden Vemdalen Slalom
1 December 1990 Italy Val Zoldana Giant slalom
2 December 1990 Italy Val Zoldana Slalom
9 December 1990 Austria Altenmarkt-Zauchensee Super-G
21 December 1990 France Morzine Downhill
7 January 1991 Austria Bad Kleinkirchheim Combined
13 January 1991 Slovenia Kranjska Gora Slalom
18 January 1991 France Méribel Downhill
19 January 1991 France Méribel Super-G
21 December 1991 France Serre Chevalier Downhill
14 March 1992 Canada Panorama Downhill

References

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  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Petra Kronberger". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
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