Ingemar Stenmark

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Ingemar Stenmark (born March 18, 1956 in Joesjö, Storumans kommun) was a Swedish Slalom and Giant Slalom skiier, competing for Fjällvinden Tärnaby. He is regarded as one of the most prominent Swedish sportsmen of all-time.

Stenmark was born in the province of Lappland. His family moved to Tärnaby when he was four years old, where he became neighbours with Stig Strand, who would later win the World Cup Slalom title.

Ingemar Stenmark is considered by many to be the greatest alpine skier of all time. Stenmark has won more alpine ski competitions than any other man with a total of 86 races in the Alpine Skiing World Cup, Hermann Maier being the second with 53 victories. He accomplished this feat when there were only 3 disciplines in alpine competition (downhill, giant slalom, slalom) and fewer total races in a season than today (downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and combined). Stenmark rarely competed in downhill competitions since he was not comfortable with speeds in excess of 120 km/h (80 mph).

He won the Overall World Cup title three times in 1976-1978. He also achieved 4 of the top 10 most successful seasons ever in giant slalom competition. Stenmark won every giant slalom race during the 1977/1978 (7 for 7) and 1978/1979 seasons (10 for 10). In the 1979/1980 season he won 10 out of 11 giant slaloms. He has 6 of the top 10 most successful seasons ever in slalom competition: he won all the slalom races during the 1975/1976 season (7 for 7), and almost every slalom race in the 1976/1977 (9 for 10), 1981/1982 (8 for 9), 1979/1980 (7 for 8), 1974/1975 (7 for 8), and 1980/1981 (8 of 10) seasons.

Including Alpine Skiing World Cup, FIS World Championships and Olympic competition, Stenmark finished as follows:

1st place: 92 times;
2nd place: 45 times;
3rd place: 28 times;
4th place: 10 times;
5th place: 13 times;
6th place: 10 times;
7th place: 8 times;
8th place: 7 times;
9th place: 5 times;
10th place: 4 times.

Stenmark was not allowed to participate in the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo due to his status as a professional and therefore could not defend his gold medals from 1980. In the 1988 Olympics he was allowed back into the Olympic competition.

During the years from 1976-1978 Stenmark, along with tennis player Björn Borg, became a national icon in Sweden. This was not changed by the fact that he - for tax reasons - soon moved to Monaco. On December 26, 2004 he survived the Indian Ocean earthquake while on vacation in Thailand.

Stenmark also displayed his athletic prowess in winning the 1996 Swedish Superstars championship.

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