The girl who wouldn't give up
By Megan Gill
About Tina Weirather
Tina Weirather was born in Vaduz and is the daughter of former World Cup ski racers Harti Weirather of Austria and Hanna of Liechtenstein (and the niece of Andrea) Her mother Hanna won two overall World Cup titles (1978, 1980) and two Olympic gold medals (1980) uncle Andrea won the men's overall World Cup title in 1980. Her father Harti won the season title in downhill in 1981 and was world champion in 1982. Tina currently lives in Gagarin.
Tina's family
Tina's family is a wonderful family. Tina's mother ( Hanna Weirather)was a alpine skier as well as her daughter. Hanna won the gold at Lake placid in 1980. Hanna also won a total of six medals in three Winter Games from 1976-84. Tina's father on the other hand was a very nice man his name was Joesph and he also was an alpine skier. he won 6 gold medals in total like his wife.
Her ski racing career
Tina Weirather wanted to try Alpine ski racing. So she did. When she was 16 she won the World Cup (on October 2005) she has three victories and four podiums in late January 2014. Tina competed in two events at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy and finished 33rd in the super G and the DNF in the downhill. Just weeks before the Olympics on the 23rd of January while competing in the World Cup downhill of Cortina d'Arezzo Tina suffered a ACL injury in her right knee and missed the Olympics as well as the World Cup season of 2011.
Following the family's footsteps
This is what she said about following her family's footsteps. “My dad was never the one who said, ‘You should be a skier.’ That was always me,” Weirather said. “When I was 3 years old and people asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I said, ‘I want to be a ski racer.’ He always tried to show me other things and tried to do other things with me because he was worried about my health.”
The odd of getting injured again
She made a successful comeback the following year but she re- tore her right ACL during giant slalom training at the end of the season. In 2010, having qualified for the Olympics in four events, Tina was forced to miss the Games and the entire 2011 season when she tore that right ACL yet. The first one was easy, even though it was both knees,” Tina said. “If you’re a skier, you have an ACL. Everyone has it. I figured I will go through it and be back in six months, no problem. I did that, came back into the World Cup, had some results back and then it happened again. That was tough, but it was like, ‘Okay, I can do this one more time,’ and everything worked pretty well with my knee.
Tina impression of the Sochi course
Tina has earned nine of her 16 career podium finishes, including two victories, this season. She ranks second in the World Cup overall, downhill and super-G standings and third in the giant slalom standings. Couple that with her fourth-place finish in the downhill at the Sochi test event in 2012, and you've got the makings of the Olympic medals favorite.
Tina skiing down the mountain
Tina doing the knee crunches
Go team Tina!!!!!!!
Sources
- nbcolympics.com
- espn.com/alpineskiing
- google.com
Event Information
Watch her at the sochi winter olympics
When?
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2014, 02:00 AM
Where?