Gregor Schlierenzauer

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Gregor Schlierenzauer
Personal information
Full name	Gregor Schlierenzauer
Nickname	Schlieri
Date of birth	January 7, 1990 (1990-01-07) (age 19)
Place of birth	Innsbruck, Austria
Height	180 cm
Professional information
Club	SV Innsbruck-Bergisel
Skis	Fischer
World Cup
Seasons	2006–
Wins	24
Other podiums	17
Total podiums	41
Infobox last updated on: March 22 2009

Gregor "Schlieri" Schlierenzauer (born January 7, 1990 in Innsbruck) is an Austrian ski jumper. He began his senior career in 2005/06 with one win and three additional podiums in the Ski jumping Grand Prix. Despite his young age, he has twenty World Cup victories, and is three times world champion: one in the team, large hill event at the 2007 World Championship, and two in the 2008 ski flying World Championship.

[edit] Early career

He started training in ski jumping when he was eight years old, for the SV Innsbruck-Bergisel club. His uncle, Markus Prock decided to be his manager. Thanks to his uncle, Schlierenzauer signed a contract with Fischer Skis in 2001, and few years later with the Red Bull company.

He competed in the Continental Cup. In February 2006, Schlierenzauer won the Junior World Championship in Kranj, Slovenia. The coach of the Austrian professional representation, Alex Pointner, called Schlierenzauer to compete in the World Cup. He debuted in the World Cup with a 24th place at the Holmenkollen ski festival on March 12, 2005.

[edit] World Cup career

[edit] 2006-2007

On December 3, 2006, Schlierenzauer took his first World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway, and became one of the youngest jumpers to ever win in Lillehammer. He also won in Oberstdorf, Germany, at the Four Hills Tournament 2006-2007. During the Four Hills Tournament, Finnish newspapers claimed that Schlierenzauer was extremely underweight, however, no evidence has ever been found to substantiate this accusation. He won the fourth competition, in Bischofshofen, Austria, on his 17th birtday, but finished the second, after Anders Jacobsen (Norway), and in front of Simon Ammann (Switzerland).

Schlierenzauer took fourth place in World Cup 2006-2007. He was second, but Adam Malysz from Poland ended up taking the first place position from Anders Jacobsen, so Schlierenzauer finished third. His coach thought that Planica was too serious for a 17-year-old Schlierenzauer, so he didn't compete there and ended finishing fourth, behind Adam Malysz, Anders Jacobsen and Simon Ammann.

[edit] 2007-2008

At the beginning of the World Cup 2007-2008, Schlierenzauer took 2nd place on the World Cup list, behind his team mate Thomas Morgenstern. He also took 2nd place in Oberstdorf,Germany, at the Four Hills Tournament 2007-2008. He won 1st place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen,Germany. He took 8th place at the competition in Bischofshofen which was originally to be held in Innsbruck but the competition in Innsbruck was moved to Bischofshofen due to strong winds. He was one of the favorites for winning the Four Hills Tournament 2007-2008, but because of horrible weather conditions, he took the 42nd place in the first series and did not enter the second series. At the end of the Four Hills Tournament ended up in 12th place.

He skipped the competitions in Predazzo, where Tom Hilde from Norway took his first World Cup victory, and in Harrachov. On January 25, 2007, Schlierenzauer took his second World Cup victory in Zakopane, Poland. He also skipped the competition in Sapporo, ruining his chance to take the first place position from his Austrian team mate Thomas Morgenstern.

After two second place finishes in Liberec and an eighth place finish in Willingen, he took part in the Ski flying World Championships in Oberstdorf,Germany in 2008. After four series of competing, he won the gold medal, on February 23, 2008. The day after, on February 24, the Austrian team of (Schlierenzauer-Morgenstern-Koch-Kofler) won the gold in the team competition.

He also took part in the 2008Nordic Tournament. He took the second and fourth place at the two competitions in Kuopio and in Lahti which was moved to Kuopio because of bad weather). Winning at the competitions in Lillehammer and Oslo, he won the 2008 Nordic Tournament.

After consecutively winning the last four individual competitions of the season, Schlierenzauer ranks second in overall the World Cup 2007-2008 standings at 233 points behind his team mate and friend Thomas Morgenstern. In March 2008, he improved the individual record of Austria on flying hills to 233.5 meters, which was also the longest jump of Planica 2008 ski jumping events.

[edit] 2008-2009

On February 11th, 2009, Schlierenzauer became only the fourth jumper to win 6 consecutive World Cup events, tying the record held by Austrian teammate Thomas Morgenstern and Finns Janne Ahonen and Matti Hautamäki. The run of victories came to end at Oberstdorf in Ski Flying on February 14th, when Schlierenzauer could only manage 8th.

On February 21st he won a silver in the individual normal hill event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec behind fellow Austrian and Four Hills winner Wolfgang Loitzl. One week later, Schlierenzauer won gold in the team large hill event.

He returned to winning ways in individual competition on March 8th at Lahti, Finland taking his number of wins to 11 for the season, one behind Janne Ahonen's record of 12 wins in one season.

On March 20th he won the ski flying event at Planica, taking his number of wins to 13 for the season record, record of 20 podiums in a season and clinching the 2008-09 world cup title with two flying events left to run. He also achieved a record of 2083 points in World Cup in one season and first who came over 2000.

[edit] Personal life

Gregor Schlierenzauer was born on January 7, 1990, in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian District of Tyrol. His parents names are Paul and Angelika. He has an older sister, Gloria, and a younger brother, Lukas. His uncle is Markus Prock, who won three Winter Olympic medals in men's luge. Schlierenzauer is deaf from birth in the left ear.

Schlierenzauer lives in Fulpmes, Tyrol, Austria and attends Skigymnasium in Stams. Before he changed to Skigymnasium, he attended an ordinary Austrian grammar school, however due to tight schedules in both sport and school, had problems to keep up with class work.

[edit] Career highlights

[edit] References

• FIS-Ski: Gregor Schlierenzauer – statistics
• Official site
• Unofficial Polish Fansite
• All results and ranking in world Cup