Rosi Mittermaier Dies at 72; as Olympic Skier, a German National Hero

Rosi Mittermaier, a West German Alpine skier who won two gold medals and one silver at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and went on to become a hugely popular figure back home, died Jan. 4 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. She was 72.

Her family said that she died after a severe illness, the German news agency DPA reported.

Mittermaier nearly achieved the unprecedented feat of winning three women’s Alpine skiing events at a single Olympics. She won the slalom and the downhill, but Kathy Kreiner, an 18-year-old Canadian, bested her by 0.12 seconds in the giant slalom.

Americans could take pride in Dorothy Hamill’s figure-skating gold medal that year, but Mittermaier emerged as the star of the Games.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/17/sports/skiing/rosi-mittermaier-dead.html