Born in West Germany at Straubing, Bavaria, on December 14, 1956, Hannelore (Hanni) Wenzel moved to Liechtenstein when she was one year old.
Winner of two World Cup Overall titles (1978 and 1980), two Giant Slalom, one Slalom, and two combined titles, Wenzel has also won nine medals at the Alpine World Ski Championships, including 4 in the Olympic Winter Games (from 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships). She won 33 World Cup races and finished on the podium 89 times.
She debuted in the World Cup in March 1972, placing 10th in a Giant Slalom staged in the Californian ski resort of Heavenly Valley.
She won the gold medal in the Slalom at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships held in St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1974. Wenzel added a second medal, silver, in the Combined.
A few months later she was granted citizenship from Liechtenstein and despite having skied for West Germany until then began a second career, representing the tiny nation nestled between Switzerland and Austria.
She won Liechtenstein's first-ever Olympic medal at the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. She finished in third place in the Slalom event held in Axamer Lizum. Wenzel also won a bronze medal in the Combined. The medals in the Combined were determined "on paper" by the results of the three races in Downhill, Giant Slalom, and Slalom. The Top-3 finishers in the Combined event were awarded world championship medals by the FIS, but not Olympic medals.
In 1978, at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, she added another medal to her collection, a silver in the Combined.
After winning the Alpine ski World Cup overall title in 1978, Wenzel's best year came in 1980.
Hanni Wenzel and Ingemar Stenmark were the highlights of Alpine Skiing in the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid. Wenzel emerged victorious in the Women’s Slalom and Giant Slalom, winning her country’s first-ever gold medals at the Winter Olympics in the Slalom and Giant Slalom, and just missed out on a sweep by taking the silver in the downhill at Whiteface Mountain.
She also easily won the world championship gold medal in the Combined event, its final edition as a "paper race" and her fourth world championship medal in that event.
At the same Olympics, her brother Andreas Wenzel also won a silver medal, placing Liechtenstein high in the medal ranking of the games.
In addition to her Olympic success, she won nine World Cup races in 1980 and the Overall, Giant Slalom, and Combined season titles, and her brother Andreas won the Men's Overall for a Wenzel family sweep of the overall titles.
Hanni Wenzel married the former Austrian skier Harti Weirather, the 1982 Downhill World Champion. Her daughter Tina Weirather, a regular on the World Cup Super-G podium and 2017 discipline Crystal Globe winner, became the sixth athlete and third woman from Liechtenstein to claim a medal at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Games with a bronze.
Hanni Wenzel was banned by the International Ski Federation (FIS) from competing in the 1984 Olympic Winter Games held in Sarajevo for accepting promotional payments directly, rather than through the national ski federation. Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark was also banned for the same reason; both were double gold medallists in 1980.
Wenzel retired at the end of the 1983-1984 winter season. Wenzel enjoyed the last run on March 21st, 1984 at Zwiesel, Germany.
Hanni Wenzel Statistics
Olympic Winter Games Starts: 6
Olympic Winter Games Medals: 4
Olympic Winter Games Victories: 2
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Starts: 13
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Podiums: 9
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Victories: 4
FIS World Cup Starts: 198
FIS World Cup Podiums: 89
FIS World Cup Victories: 33
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