Ingemar Stenmark

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Jan Ingemar Stenmark (born March 18, 1956 in Joesjö, Storumans municipality) is a former Swedish skier, active during the '70s and '80s. He is regarded as one of the most prominent Swedish sportsmen, and as the greatest slalom and giant slalom specialist of all time. He competed for Fjällvinden Tärnaby.

Stenmark was born in the province of Lappland. His family moved to Tärnaby when he was four years old, where he became neighbours with Stig Strand, who would later win the World Cup Slalom title. He began skiing at the age of five and won his first national competition at the age of eight.

[edit] Competitive record

Stenmark has won more alpine ski competitions than any other man with a total of 86 races in the Alpine Skiing World Cup, Hermann Maier being the second with 53 victories. He only won in two disciplines: slalom and giant slalom (the other events are downhill, super-G, which did not exist until 1982, and combined). Stenmark rarely competed in the other disciplines, as he was not comfortable with speeds in excess of 120 km/h (75 mph).

He won the Overall World Cup title three times in 1976-78. He also achieved four of the top ten most successful seasons ever in giant slalom competition. Stenmark won every giant slalom race during the 1977-78 (7 of 7) and 1978-79 seasons (10 of 10). In the 1979-80 season he won ten out of eleven giant slaloms. He has six of the top ten most successful seasons ever in slalom competition: he won all the slalom races during the 1975-76 season (7 of 7), and almost every slalom race in the 1976-77 (9 of 10), 1981-82 (8 of 9), 1979-80 (7 of 8), 1974-75 (7 of 8), and 1980-81 (8 of 10) seasons.

Including Alpine Skiing World Cup, FIS World Championships and Olympic competition, Stenmark finished as follows:

• 1st place: 92 times;
• 2nd place: 45 times;
• 3rd place: 28 times;
• 4th place: 10 times;
• 5th place: 13 times;
• 6th place: 10 times;
• 7th place: 8 times;
• 8th place: 7 times;
• 9th place: 5 times;
• 10th place: 4 times.

Stenmark was not allowed to participate in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo due to his status as a professional and therefore could not defend his gold medals from 1980. In the 1988 Games he was allowed back into the Olympic competition.

For his three straight World Alpine Skiing World Cup titles (1976-78), Stenmark earned the Holmenkollen medal in 1979 (Shared with Erik Håker and Raisa Smetanina). Stenmark also earned the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal twice as well (1975 & 1978). His 1978 medal was shared with tennis player Björn Borg, making them the only two men to ever win the honor twice (female alpine skier Anja Pärsson received the medal in 2006 and 2007).

[edit] Other

During the years from 1976-78 Stenmark, along with tennis player Björn Borg, became a national icon in Sweden. This was not changed by the fact that he - for tax reasons - soon moved to Monaco. On December 26, 2004 he survived the Indian Ocean earthquake while on vacation in Thailand. Stenmark also won the 1996 Swedish Superstars championship.

[edit] World Cup victories

[edit] Overall

[edit] Individual victories

Date	Location	Race
17 December 1974	Madonna di Campiglio	Slalom
12 January 1975	Wengen	Slalom
23 February 1975	Naeba	Giant Slalom
2 March 1975	Garibaldi	Giant Slalom
13 March 1975	Sun Valley	Giant Slalom
15 December 1975	Sterzing / Vipiteno	Slalom
11 January 1976	Wengen	Slalom
24 January 1976	Kitzbühel	Slalom
27 January 1976	Zwiesel	Giant Slalom
7 March 1976	Copper Mountain, U.S.	Slalom
14 March 1976	Aspen	Slalom
3 januari 1977	Laax	Slalom
10 January 1977	Berchtesgaden	Slalom
16 January 1977	Kitzbühel	Slalom
23 January 1977	Wengen	Slalom
6 February 1977	St. Anton	Slalom
6 March 1977	Sun Valley	Giant Slalom
18 March 1977	Voss	Slalom
20 March 1977	Åre	Slalom
21 March 1977	Åre	Giant Slalom
25 March 1977	Sierra Nevada	Giant Slalom
10 December 1977	Val d'Isère	Giant Slalom
13 December 1977	Madonna di Campiglio	Slalom
14 December 1977	Madonna di Campiglio	Giant Slalom
5 January 1978	Oberstaufen	Slalom
8 January 1978	Zwiesel	Giant Slalom
9 January 1978	Zwiesel	Slalom
18 March 1978	Arosa	Giant Slalom
9 December 1978	Schladming	Giant Slalom
21 December 1978	Kranjska Gora	Slalom
22 December 1978	Kranjska Gora	Giant Slalom
7 January 1979	Courchevel	Giant Slalom
16 January 1979	Adelboden	Giant Slalom
23 January 1979	Steinach	Giant Slalom
4 February 1979	Jasná	Giant Slalom
10 February 1979	Åre	Giant Slalom
11 February 1979	Åre	Slalom
4 March 1979	Lake Placid	Giant Slalom
12 March 1979	Heavenly Valley	Giant Slalom
17 March 1979	Furano	Slalom
19 March 1979	Furano	Slalom
8 December 1979	Val d'Isère	Giant Slalom
11 December 1979	Madonna di Campiglio	Slalom
12 December 1979	Madonna di Campiglio	Giant Slalom
21 January 1980	Adelboden	Giant Slalom
27 January 1980	Chamonix	Slalom
27 February 1980	Waterville Valley	Slalom
1 March 1980	Mont-Sainte-Anne	Giant Slalom
10 March 1980	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Slalom
11 March 1980	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Giant Slalom
13 March 1980	Saalbach	Giant Slalom
15 March 1980	Saalbach	Slalom
9 December 1980	Madonna di Campiglio	Slalom
10 December 1980	Madonna di Campiglio	Giant Slalom
6 January 1981	Morzine	Giant Slalom
18 January 1981	Kitzbühel	Slalom
26 January 1981	Adelboden	Giant Slalom
1 February 1981	St Anton	Slalom
2 February 1981	Schladming	Giant Slalom
8 February 1981	Oslo	Slalom
11 February 1981	Voss	Giant Slalom
14 February 1981	Åre	Giant Slalom
9 January 1982	Morzine	Giant Slalom
12 January 1982	Bad Wiessee	Slalom
17 January 1982	Kitzbühel	Slalom
19 January 1982	Adelboden	Giant Slalom
9 February 1982	Kirchberg	Giant Slalom
14 December 1982	Courmayeur	Slalom
23 January 1983	Kitzbühel	Slalom
11 February 1983	Markstein	Slalom
13 February 1983	Todtnau	Giant Slalom
26 February 1983	Gällivare	Giant Slalom
13 December 1983	Courmayeur	Slalom
20 December 1983	Madonna di Campiglio	Slalom
10 January 1984	Adelboden	Giant Slalom
17 January 1984	Parpan	Slalom
23 January 1984	Kirchberg	Giant Slalom
4 February 1984	Borovetz	Giant Slalom
7 March 1984	Vail	Giant Slalom
15 December 1985	Alta Badia	Giant Slalom
25 January 1986	St Anton	Slalom
27 February 1986	Hemsedal	Giant Slalom
18 March 1986	Lake Placid	Giant Slalom
29 November 1986	Sestrières	Slalom
14 February 1987	Markstein	Slalom
19 February 1989	Aspen, Colorado	Giant Slalom

[edit] External links

• FIS-Ski: Ingemar Stenmark - statistics
• Holmenkollen medalists - click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file (Norwegian)
• Ski-db.com - Ingemar Stenmark