Gregor Schlierenzauer

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Personal information
Gregor Schlierenzauer

Full name	Gregor Schlierenzauer
Nickname	Schlieri
Date of birth	January 7, 1990 (age 17)
Place of birth	Innsbruck, Austria
Professional information
Club	SV Innsbruck-Bergisel
Skis	Fischer
World Cup
Seasons	2005-
Wins	5
Podiums	1
Total podiums	6

Medal record
Men's ski jumping
World Championships
Gold	2007 Sapporo	Team large hill

Gregor "Schlieri" Schlierenzauer (born January 7, 1990 in Innsbruck) is an Austrian ski jumper. The next big Austrian hope began his senior career in 2005/06 with one win and three additional podiums in the Ski jumping Grand Prix.

Gregor won the Junior World Championship in Kranj, Slovenia, in February 2006. Schlierenzauer debuted in the World Cup with a 24th place at the Holmenkollen ski festival on March 12, 2006. During the next season, he took his first World Cup victory on December 3, 2006 in Lillehammer. During the 2006-07 Four Hills Tournament, Finnish newspapers claimed that Gregor was extremely underweight, however no evidence has been found that this was true. Despite the criticism, he finished second behind Anders Jacobsen in the tournament.

Schlierenzauer lives in Fulpmes, Austria and attends Skigymnasium in Stams, where he will be graduating from economics school in 2008. Before he changed to Skigymnasium, he attended an ordinary Austrian grammar school, however due to tide schedules in both sport and school, had problems to keep up with class work. After changing to Skigymnasium Stams he managed to improve his grades up to an grade point average of 1.4. His manager is his uncle Markus Prock, who won three Winter Olympic medals himself in men's luge.It was him who managed to get a sponsoring contract with Redbull in 2006.

Entering the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 in Sapporo, Schlierenzauer is ranked second behind Norway's Anders Jacobsen in the Ski jumping World Cup standings. He won his first gold medal at the 2007 championships in the team large hill event despite having the weakest two jumps for the team.

[edit] Trivia

Gregor Schlierenzauer became the 5th individual to win a Ski jumping World Cup-competition at the age of 16, or younger, after his win in Lysgårdsbakkene on December 2, 2006. The four others are Steve Collins (15), Toni Nieminen (16), Primož Peterka (16) and Thomas Morgenstern (16).
Schlierenzauer is deaf from birth in the left ear. He took his first win on Four Hills Tournament in Obersdorf at age of 16.