Benjamin Raich

Benjamin Raich

Raich in January 2008
Disciplines	Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Combined
Club	S.V. Leins Pitztal - Tirol
Born	(1978-02-28) February 28, 1978 Arzl im Pitztal, Tyrol, Austria
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
World Cup debut	March 10, 1996 (age 18)
Website	Raich.at
Olympics
Teams	3 - (2002–10)
Medals	4 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams	8 - (1999–2013)
Medals	10 (3 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	15th - (1999-2013)
Wins	36 - (1 SG, 14 GS, 14 SL, 7 K)
Podiums	88
Overall titles	1 - (2006)
Discipline titles	8 - (2 GS, 3 SL, 3 K)

Benjamin Raich

Medal record
Competitor for Austria
Men's alpine skiing
Olympic Games
Gold	2006 Turin	Giant slalom
Gold	2006 Turin	Slalom
Bronze	2002 Salt Lake City	Slalom
Bronze	2002 Salt Lake City	Combined
World Championships
Gold	2005 Bormio	Slalom
Gold	2005 Bormio	Combined
Gold	2007 Åre	Team Event
Silver	2001 St. Anton	Slalom
Silver	2005 Bormio	Giant Slalom
Silver	2005 Bormio	Team Event
Silver	2007 Åre	Super Combined
Silver	2009 Val d'Isère	Giant Slalom
Silver	2011 Garmisch	Team Event
Bronze	2005 Bormio	Super-G
Junior World Ski Championships
Gold	1996 Hoch-Ybrig	Slalom
Gold	1997 Schladming	Giant Slalom
Gold	1998 Megève	Giant Slalom
Gold	1998 Megève	Slalom
Gold	1998 Megève	Combination

Benjamin Raich (born February 28, 1978 in Arzl im Pitztal, Tyrol) is a champion World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Austria. With 14 medals won at Winter Olympics and World Championships, 36 World Cup race victories (in all disciplines except downhill), one first place and five second places in the World Cup overall ranking, three victories of the slalom World Cup, three victories of the combined World Cup, two victories of the giant slalom World Cup and the highest score of career World Cup points (ahead of Norwegian Kjetil André Aamodt) he is considered among the best alpine racers in World Cup history.

Career

After winning Junior World Championships in both slalom and giant slalom, Raich made his World Cup debut in March 1996. He scored his first victory in 1999, in slalom.

In 2001 he won the silver medal in Slalom at the World Championships, and at the end of the season he won the Slalom World Cup. In 2002 he won two bronze medals at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Raich, who became better at faster specialities such as Super-G and Downhill with age also, in 2005 barely missed out on the overall World Cup title, placing second to American Bode Miller. At the 2005 World Championships he won a total of five medals, one for each race except for the downhill.

He won the 2006 World Cup overall title in the most successful season of his career, as well as Olympic gold medals in slalom and giant slalom at the Turin Olympics.

Throughout his career Raich has been known for his consistency which led to him to second places in the overall world cup in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 (narrowly missing out the titles in both 2007 and 2009 by 13 points and 2 points respectively).

His sister Carina Raich also is a ski racer. Raich is engaged to skier Marlies Schild.

World Cup results

Season standings

Season	Age	Overall	Slalom	Giant Slalom	Super G	Downhill	Combined
1998	20	96	—	37	—	—	—
1999	21	10	7	6	32	—	—
2000	22	9	6	4	—	—	—
2001	23	4	1	4	—	—	—
2002	24	9	19	2	—	—	—
2003	25	8	17	6	8	37	—
2004	26	3	3	4	8	35	2
2005	27	2	1	1	6	26	1
2006	28	1	3	1	15	28	1
2007	29	2	1	3	13	32	5
2008	30	2	8	2	3	36	6
2009	31	2	10	2	14	32	5
2010	32	2	6	3	4	—	1
2011	33	11	15	19	8	54	18
2012	34	12	16	13	7	31	12
2013	35	20	18	16	38	—	8

Season titles

9 titles: 1 Overall, 2 Giant Slalom, 3 Slalom, 3 Combined

Season	Discipline
2001	Slalom
2005	Giant Slalom
	Slalom
	Combined
2006	Overall
	Giant Slalom
	Combined
2007	Slalom
2010	Combined

Individual races

36 total: 1 Super G, 14 Giant Slalom, 14 Slalom, 7 Combined

Season	Date	Location	Race
1999	January 7, 1999	Schladming, Austria	Slalom
	January 10, 1999	Flachau, Austria	Giant Slalom
	January 17, 1999	Wengen, Switzerland	Slalom
2000	February 26, 2000	Yongpyong, South Korea	Giant Slalom
	March 18, 2000	Bormio, Italy	Giant Slalom
2001	January 14, 2001	Wengen, Switzerland	Slalom
	January 21, 2001	Kitzbühel, Austria	Slalom
	January 23, 2001	Schladming, Austria	Slalom
	March 11, 2001	Åre, Sweden	Slalom
2002	December 21, 2001	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia	Giant Slalom
2004	January 3, 2004	Flachau, Austria	Giant Slalom
	January 18, 2004	Wengen, Switzerland	Slalom
	January 27, 2004	Schladming, Austria	Slalom
2005	December 5, 2004	Beaver Creek, CO, USA	Slalom
	January 14, 2005	Wengen, Switzerland	Combined
	2005 World Championships
	February 26, 2005	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia	Giant Slalom
2006	December 21, 2005	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia	Giant Slalom
	January 7, 2006	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant Slalom
	January 13, 2006	Wengen, Switzerland	Super Combined
	January 22, 2006	Kitzbühel, Austria	Combined
	February 3, 2006	Chamonix, France	Super Combined
	2006 Winter Olympics
	March 10, 2006	Shiga Kōgen, Japan	Slalom
	March 17, 2006	Åre, Sweden	Giant Slalom
2007	November 12, 2006	Levi, Finland	Slalom
	January 6, 2007	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant Slalom
	January 23, 2007	Schladming, Austria	Slalom
	2007 World Championships
	March 3, 2007	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia	Giant Slalom
	March 9, 2007	Kvitfjell, Norway	Super-Combined
	March 18, 2007	Lenzerheide, Switzerland	Slalom
2008	December 9, 2007	Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria	Slalom
2009	December 7, 2008	Beaver Creek, CO, USA	Giant Slalom
	December 12, 2008	Val-d'Isère, France	Super Combined
	January 10, 2009	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant Slalom
	March 13, 2009	Åre, Sweden	Giant Slalom
2010	December 11, 2009	Val-d'Isère, France	Super Combined
2012	February 25, 2012	Crans Montana, Switzerland	Super G

External links

• Benjamin Raich at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-ski.com – Benjamin Raich – World Cup season standings
• Ski-db.com - results - Benjamin Raich
• Raich.at - personal site
• Austrian Ski team - official site - Benjamin Raich - (German)
• Atomic Skis - athletes - Benjamin Raich

Awards
Preceded by Georg Totschnig	Austrian Sportsman of the year 2006	Succeeded by Thomas Vanek