Petra Kronberger

Kronberger grew up on a farm in the Alps near Salzburg, Austria. The farm belonged to her maternal grandparents, but her parents were still living there while they saved up the money necessary to build their own house. Her father, Heinrich, drove cement trucks, and her mother, Waltraud, did cleaning and dishwashing. The family also included Kronberger's brother, Robert, who was a year younger than she, but he died of the flu when he was thirteen months old.

Kronberger's father first taught her to ski when she was two. She soon stood out as a champion skier, winning her first trophy in a race at age six. When Kronberger was ten, a development coach noticed her and suggested to her parents that she start training more seriously. This entailed enrolling in a residential school in Bad Gastein, Austria, that combined ski training and academics. Although the Kronbergers had finally built their dream house, with their own hands, money was still tight and the $100 monthly tuition was difficult for them. Yet, as Kron-berger's

Petra Kronberger

mother later explained to Sports Illustrated reporter Anita Verschoth, "We didn't want to be sorry later."