Vreni Schneider, the most successful skier in Swiss alpine history, is celebrating a milestone birthday. The exceptional racer, who was marked by a stroke of fate, is only remembered for her extra class athleticism.
In her homeland she was something like Rosi Mittermaier was for German winter sports. Or, even broader: what Steffi Graf meant for German sport as a whole.
In the Corona year 2020, the assessment was confirmed when the newspaper Blick Due to the impairments, the “Athlete of the Year” election was canceled and instead called for people to vote for the greatest Swiss athletes. Winner among men: Roger Federer, of course. Winner among women: Vreni Schneider.
The most successful World Cup rider in Swiss alpine history turns 60 today – and can look back on an impressive record-breaking career.
Vreni Schneider: Only three stars were more successful
With 55 World Cup victories, Schneider was number 2 in the all-time World Cup ranking behind Austrian icon Annemarie Moser-Pröll for a long time. Today she is still number 4 behind Mikaela Shiffrin (currently 99), Lindsey Vonn (82) and Moser-Pröll (62).
There were also three Olympic victories (slalom and giant slalom in Calgary 1988, slalom in Lillehammer 1994), three World Cup titles, three overall World Cup victories and a total of eleven small crystal balls in her two special disciplines. Schneider achieved podium places in all divisions over the course of her career, and her fabulous 1988/89 season was also unsurpassed for 30 years with a total of 14 victories – before Shiffrin surpassed the record in 2019.
Schneider had learned to ski race at the age of four and had shown himself to be a great talent at an early age. After her World Cup debut at the end of 1983, in the slipstream of Swiss record world champion Erika Hess, she matured into a world-class rider, which she remained until the end of her career in 1995: After her record-breaking winter of 1988/89, she also ended her last two seasons with the big crystal ball – Only when Schneider resigned was the way clear for the World Cup crowning of the then best German, Katja Seizinger.
Schneider’s great strength was technical precision: “Her unspectacular but millimeter-precise style never made Schneider look really fast. “That was deceptive,” he said Spiegel once what made the exceptional driver special. Schneider’s second runs were also feared: What will never be forgotten is how she started the second run 1.93 seconds behind in the Sierra Nevada in 1994 – and ended up taking first place, 1.36 seconds ahead.
“Unique as an athlete and as a person”
The exceptional driver of the late 1980s and early 1990s was never a dazzling star like Shiffrin or earlier Vonn: the humble background from which she came was always reflected in her personality.
Schneider – actually: Verena Schneider – was born on November 26th in the 600-inhabitant village of Elm in the canton of Glarus. The daughter of a shoemaker was affected by a stroke of fate in her youth: her mother died when she was 16, meaning she had to take responsibility for her three younger siblings at an early age.
Her sense of family was later appreciated in the ski scene, including by the competition: “Vreni was always friendly, talkative and modest,” remembers former German world champion Martina Ertl Daily Gazette. “Vreni was unique, as an athlete, but also as a person,” adds former national coach Jan Tischhauer: “The fact that she remained so humble and without airs and graces despite all her successes was unbelievable.”
Schneider always remained rooted in her small home community and founded her own family there with her husband – with whom she runs a ski school – and her two sons. She revealed another passion in 2012 when she recorded a folk music album.
There are many tributes and homages in the Swiss media surrounding Schneider’s special day, Schneider herself doesn’t make a big deal about the anniversary: ”I won’t celebrate this day,” she revealed SRFthe big celebrations and receptions during her career would have been enough for her. You spend the day on the ski slopes.
