Competitive Record
Stenmark has won far more international races than any other alpine skier in history. With victories of a total of 86 (46 giant slaloms and 40 slaloms) he is 32 ahead of Hermann Maier who has 54 victories to his name. He only won in two disciplines: slalom and giant slalom (the other events are downhill, super-G, which did not exist until 1982, and combined). Stenmark rarely competed in the other disciplines, as he was not comfortable with speeds in excess of 120 km/h (75 mph).
Stenmark was not allowed to participate in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo due to his status as a professional and therefore could not defend his gold medals from 1980 Winter Olympics. In the 1988 Winter Olympics he was allowed back into the Olympic competition.
For his three straight World Cup titles (1976–78), Stenmark earned the Holmenkollen medal in 1979 (Shared with Erik Håker and Raisa Smetanina). Stenmark also earned the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal twice (1975 & 1978). His 1978 medal was shared with tennis player Björn Borg, making them the only two men to ever win the honor twice (female alpine skier Anja Pärson received the medal in 2006 and 2007).
Read more about this topic: Ingemar Stenmark
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