Petra Kronberger (born February 21, 1969, in Pfarrwerfen) is an Austrian former alpine skier, who participated in all disciplines. She was the first female alpine skier who managed to win in all five World Cup events.
Career
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 of 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 in the Super-G and fifth in the slalom.[1]
She retired as alpine skier in December 1992.[2]
World Cup victories
Overall
Individual races
| Date |
Location |
Race |
|---|
| December 16, 1989 |  Panorama | Downhill |
| December 17, 1989 | Panorama Ski Resort | Downhill |
| January 8, 1990 |  Hinterstoder | Giant Slalom |
| January 14, 1990 | Haus | Combined |
| January 28, 1990 |  Santa Caterina di Valfurva | Giant Slalom |
| March 13, 1990 |  Vemdalen | Slalom |
| December 1, 1990 | Valzoldana | Giant Slalom |
| 2 December 1990 | Valzoldana | Slalom |
| 9 December 1990 | Altenmarkt | Super-G |
| 21 December 1990 |  Morzine | Downhill |
| 7 January 1991 | Bad Kleinkirchheim | Combined |
| 13 January 1991 |  Kranjska Gora | Slalom |
| 18 January 1991 | Méribel | Downhill |
| 19 January 1991 | Méribel | Super-G |
| 21 December 1991 | Serre-Chevalier | Downhill |
| 14 March 1992 | Panorama | Downhill |
References
External links
Olympic Champions in Women's Slalom |
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Olympic Champions in Women's Alpine Combined |
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Women's Alpine Skiing World Cup Winners (overall) |
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| Persondata |
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| Name |
Kronberger, Petra |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
Austrian alpine skier |
| Date of birth |
February 21, 1969 |
| Place of birth |
Pfarrwerfen |
| Date of death |
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| Place of death |
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