Anna Fenninger

Anna Fenninger
— Alpine skier —

Fenninger in October 2013
Disciplines Giant slalom, super-G,
downhill, combined
Club Skiklub Hypo Hallein
Born 18 June 1989
Hallein, Salzburg, Austria
Height 1.66 m (5 ft 5 1⁄2 in)
World Cup debut 11 November 2006
(age 17)
Website anna-fenninger.at
Olympics
Teams 2 – (2010, 2014)
Medals 2 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams 4 – (2009–2015)
Medals 5 (3 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 9th – (2007–2015)
Wins 14 – (2 SG, 1 KB, 11 GS)
Podiums 43 – (8 DH, 19 SG, 1 KB, 15 GS)
Overall titles 2 – (2014, 2015)
Discipline titles 2 – (GS: 2014, 2015)

Anna Fenninger (born 18 June 1989) is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. She is the overall World Cup champion for the 2015 season, won in March 2015.

Born in Hallein, Fenninger is from the village of Adnet in Salzburg. She started competing in all five alpine disciplines, but omitted slalom as of January 2012. Her first major success was becoming world champion in the super combined in 2011,[1] without having won a World Cup race before. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Fenninger won the super-G at Rosa Khutor for her first Olympic medal, and at the end of the season she won the World Cup overall and giant slalom titles.

Ski racing

2006–2010: World Cup Debut and first successes

In the 2006 Junior World Championships, Fenninger won the gold in the super-G, silver in the downhill, and finished fifth in the slalom.

On 11 November 2006, Fenninger made her World Cup debut in the slalom at Levi, Finland. She tallied her first World Cup points (top 30) on 21 January 2007 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, where she finished 16th in the giant slalom.

After another top 20 placing, she improved again on 22 December 2007 in St. Anton, where she received her best result of fourth in the super combined. At the 2008 Junior World Championships, Fenninger won gold in the giant slalom and silver in both combined and downhill.

In the 2009 season she achieved six top 10 placings, with her greatest success being a second place in the super-G event in Cortina d'Ampezzo on 26 January 2009. At the World Championships in Val-d'Isère Fenninger became 4th and 7th in the super-G and the super combined events, respectively. She won the bronze medal in the super-G event at the 2009 Junior World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

In the next season, Fenninger had three top 10 finishes. At the 2010 Winter Olympics she placed 16th in the super-G and the super combined events, and 25th in the downhill.

2011: World Champion

The 2011 season was a very successful season for Fenninger. She had twelve World Cup top ten finishes, which included two podiums, and finished 12th in the overall standings. She was 6th in the season's downhill standings, and 7th in the super-G. At the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Fenninger won gold in the super combined and silver in the team event, together with Romed Baumann, Michaela Kirchgasser, Benjamin Raich, Marlies Schild and Philipp Schörghofer. She completed the season by winning the gold medal in the super-G at the Austrian Championships in late March.

2012–2013: first World Cup victories, bronze medal in Schladming

In late December 2011, Fenninger won her first World Cup event in Lienz, Austria, in the Giant slalom.[2] Her most consistent World Cup podium results have been in the super-G. After another giant slalom win in Austria in December 2012,[3] Fenninger's first super-G victory came in March 2013 in Germany.[4]

At the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, Austria, Fenninger won bronze in the giant slalom.

In the alpine skiing World Cup overall ranking 2013 she finished third behind Tina Maze and Maria Höfl-Riesch.

2014 Sochi Olympics and World Cup overall title

The 2014 season was Fenninger's most successful season so far. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Fenninger won the super-G at Rosa Khutor for her first Olympic medal, winning by over a half-second.[5][6] Three days later, she won a silver medal in the giant slalom, held in the rain.[7]

In the next three races after the Olympics, Fenninger had a runner-up finish and two wins, which gave her 280 more points and temporary lead over Höfl-Riesch. in the World Cup overall standings. Höfl-Riesch. regained the lead after the slalom at Are, but was injured in the downhill at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide. The next day, Fenninger secured her first World Cup overall title with a runner-up finish in the super-G.[8] She won the season-ending giant slalom to clinch the crystal globe for that discipline as well. Fenninger was runner-up for the season in both speed events, downhill and super-G and finished with four World Cup victories and eleven podiums. Including the Olympics, she had five wins and thirteen podiums during the 2014 season.

2015 Vail/Beaver Creek World Championships and World Cup titles

Fenninger had her most successful World Championships to date winning gold medals in the Super G and GS and a silver in the downhill. Following the World Championships she continued her form in the World Cup. On January 19 she had trailed Tina Maze by 361 points in the overall. On March 13 she briefly overtook Maze in the standings with a dominant win in the GS in Åre, to take her ninth straight World Cup podium and fifth victory of the season.[9] It was the first time she had led the overall since winning the first race of the season: the GS in Sölden. Only five races remained. The overall and GS titles would go to the last run of the last race of the season: the GS in Meribel. Fenninger was then trailing Maze by 18 points in the overall and had an 86-point lead over team mate Eva Maria Brem in the GS standings. Fenninger took a win, and with it the GS and overall titles.[10]

Conservation efforts

Fenninger supports the non-profit organisation Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), whose mission is to be the world's resource charged with protecting the cheetahs and ultimately ensuring its future on our planet. Her racehelmet has a cheetah design, and as an ambassador of this organisation she was publishing several videos and photographs with herself in cheetah design,[11][12] with the aim of raising awareness that they are almost extinct.

Since 2013 Fenninger is also a partner of the Austrian non-profit organisation Build an Ark - engaged in wildlife conservation for many years - in order to create a long-term effect for the Cheetah project. The cooperation of a top-athlete and a wildlife conservation association, themed "top-class sports meets wildlife conservation" is intended to raise awareness of the cheetah's plight and of society's role in its long-term survival.[13]

World Cup results

Season titles

Season Discipline
2014 Overall
Giant slalom
2015 Overall
Giant slalom

Season standings

Season Age Overall Slalom Giant
 slalom  		Super-G Downhill Combined
2007 17 108  — 40  —  —  —
2008 18 60  — 52 32  — 14
2009 19 20 39 52 15 21 7
2010 20 26  —  — 13 26 6
2011 21 12 59 33 7 6 9
2012 22 5 54 4 3 19 8
2013 23 3  — 2 3 8 13
2014 24 1  — 1 2 2 8
2015 25 1  — 1 2 2 1

Race podiums

Fenninger in January 2011
Fenninger receiving Newcomer of the Year Award in November 2011
Season Date Location Discipline Place
2009 26 Jan 2009 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Super-G 2nd
2011 8 Jan 2011 Austria Zauchensee, Austria Downhill 3rd
21 Jan 2011 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Super-G 3rd
2012 4 Dec 2011 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Super-G 2nd
7 Dec 2011 United States Beaver Creek, USA Super-G 3rd
28 Dec 2011 Austria Lienz, Austria Giant slalom 1st
8 Jan 2012 Austria Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria Super-G 3rd
5 Feb 2012 Germany Garmisch, Germany Super-G 2nd
18 Mar 2012 Austria Schladming, Austria Giant slalom 2nd
2013 2 Dec 2012 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Super-G 3rd
19 Dec 2012 Sweden Åre, Sweden Giant slalom 2nd
28 Dec 2012 Austria Semmering, Austria Giant slalom 1st
12 Jan 2013 Austria St. Anton, Austria Downhill 3rd
13 Jan 2013 Super-G 2nd
26 Jan 2013 Slovenia Maribor, Slovenia Giant slalom 3rd
3 Mar 2013 Germany Garmisch, Germany Super-G 1st
9 Mar 2013 Germany Ofterschwang, Germany Giant slalom1st
2014 30 Nov 2013 United States Beaver Creek, USA Super-G 2nd
7 Dec 2013 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 3rd
8 Dec 2013 Super-G 3rd
14 Dec 2013  Switzerland  St. Moritz, Switzerland Super-G 3rd
28 Dec 2013 Austria Lienz, Austria Giant slalom1st
11 Jan 2014 Austria Altenmarkt, Austria Downhill 2nd
2 Mar 2014  Switzerland  Crans Montana, Switzerland Downhill 2nd
6 Mar 2014 Sweden Åre, Sweden Giant slalom 1st
7 Mar 2014 Giant slalom 1st
13 Mar 2014 Switzerland  Lenzerheide, Switzerland Super-G 2nd
16 Mar 2014 Giant slalom 1st
2015 25 Oct 2014 Austria Sölden, Austria Giant slalom 1st
5 Dec 2014 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 2nd
21 Dec 2014 France Val-d'Isère, France Super-G 2nd
28 Dec 2014 Austria Kühtai, Austria Giant slalom 2nd
19 Jan 2015 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Super-G 2nd
24 Jan 2015  Switzerland  St. Moritz, Switzerland Downhill 2nd
25 Jan 2015 Super-G 2nd
21 Feb 2015 Slovenia Maribor, Slovenia Giant slalom 1st
1 Mar 2015 Bulgaria Bansko, Bulgaria Super combined 1st
2 Mar 2015 Super G 1st
7 Mar 2015 Germany Garmisch, Germany Downhill 2nd
8 Mar 2015 Super-G 3rd
13 Mar 2015 Sweden Åre, Sweden Giant slalom 1st
19 Mar 2015 France Méribel, France Super-G 2nd
22 Mar 2015 Giant Slalom 1st

World Championship results

  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom  		Super-G Downhill Combined
2009 19 32 — 4 DNF 7
2011 21 — — 5 17 1
2013 23 — 3 DNF 11 DNF2
2015 25 — 1 1 2 4

Olympic results

  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom  		Super-G Downhill Combined
2010 20 — — 16 25 16
2014 24 — 2 1 DNF 8

References

  1. ↑ Williams, Eric (11 February 2011). "Fenninger takes World Champs gold in Super Combined". Ski Racing. Archived from the original on 14 February 2011.
  2. ↑ Williams, Eric (28 December 2011). "Fenninger takes first career World Cup win at home in Lienz GS, Vonn fifth". Ski Racing. Archived from the original on 18 March 2014.
  3. ↑ Mintz, Geoff (28 December 2012). "Fenninger earns first win of season on home snow, Shiffrin her career best GS". Ski Racing. Archived from the original on 17 March 2014.
  4. ↑ Mintz, Geoff (3 March 2013). "Mancuso third in Garmisch, as Fenninger knocks the German into runner-up position". Ski Racing. Archived from the original on 17 March 2014.
  5. ↑ Mintz, Geoff (15 February 2014). "Fenninger, Höfl-Riesch. and Hosp survive DNFs for medals in SG". Ski Racing. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  6. ↑ "Austrian Anna Fenninger wins women's Super G Gold at Sochi". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  7. ↑ Mintz, Geoff (18 February 2014). "Maze shines in rainy Russia". Ski Racing. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  8. ↑ Dunbar, Graham (13 March 2014). "Austrian skier Anna Fenninger wins overall World Cup title; Lara Gut wins super-G". US News. Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "Fenninger wins again, surges to lead in overall standings". Ski Racing.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 23 Mar 2015.
  10. ↑ "Fenninger shines in winner-takes-all showdown with Maze". Ski Racing.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 23 Mar 2015.
  11. ↑ "Super-G gold medalist Anna Fenninger wants to help cheetahs (Video)". 15 February 2014. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  12. ↑ "Anna Fenninger im Skiweltcup.TV Interview: "Geparden und ich haben viel gemeinsam!"" (in German). 15 June 2014. Archived from the original on 17 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  13. ↑ "Anna Fenninger at Build-an-Ark" (in German). Archived from the original on 21 March 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anna Fenninger.
Awards
Preceded by
Marlies Schild		 Austrian Sportswoman of the year
2013, 2014 		Succeeded by
Incumbent