Petra Kronberger Biography - First Mountains, It All Clicked Into Place, Three Championship Seasons, Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments
famous time world cup
1969-
Austrian downhill skier
Petra Kronberger dominated women's alpine skiing for a few brief years between 1988 and 1992. Although she skied on the World Cup circuit for fewer than six full seasons, in that time Kronberger won three World Cup overall titles and two Olympic gold medals. Yet her personality was as famous and appreciated in Austria as her winning record. Kronberger prayed when she was nervous, always spoke kindly of her fellow athletes, and never gave off even a whiff of scandal. Even after she became rich and famous, she still rode her bicycle around her tiny hometown, Pfarrwerfen, Austria (population 2,100). For a time Kronberger was even a spokeswoman for a brand of European cocoa drink called Ovomaltine, which is noted for only using modest, down-to-earth, outdoorsy-type people in its advertisements.
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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 young…
Kronberger did not disappoint them, although it took her many years to bloom into a world-class skier. She battled homesickness, the challenges of puberty, and a serious injury to her ankle while making excellent grades throughout her years at the school in Bad Gastein and later at Schladming, where she transferred to another skiing school at age fourteen. When Kronberger graduated, it did not loo…
Kronberger joined the World Cup circuit in the 1987-88 season. Although she did not win any races that year, she did finish in the top three on occasion, and she was expected to be a contender at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. In the end she did not win any medals in Calgary, but she did give a good performance for an athlete still in her teen years: she finished sixth in the downhill and eleve…
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