Gregor Schlierenzauer

Early and personal life

Gregor Schlierenzauer was born on 7 January 1990 in Innsbruck, Tyrol, to Paul and Angelika Schlierenzauer. The second of three children, he has an older sister, Gloria, and a younger brother, Lukas. His uncle is Markus Prock, the winner of three Winter Olympic medals in men's luge, who settled him a contract with Fischer Skis in 2001 and a few years later with Red Bull. Schlierenzauer is deaf in the left ear from birth. At age eight, Schlierenzauer began training in ski jumping at SV Innsbruck–Bergisel club. He attended an ordinary Austrian grammar school, however, due to tight schedules in both sport and school, he had problems keeping up with his class work. Schlierenzauer then enrolled at Skigymnasium Stams in Austria, the world's oldest ski-sport training center and boarding secondary school. He currently resides in Fulpmes, Tyrol.

Schlierenzauer began competing professionally in the 2005/06 season in the Continental Cup, then only fifteen years old. In February 2006, he won the gold medal at the Junior World Championships in Kranj, Slovenia and then Alex Pointner, the coach of the Austrian professional team, called him to compete in the World Cup. Schlierenzauer debuted in the World Cup finishing in 24th place at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival on 12 March 2006.

2006/07 World Cup

On 3 December 2006, Schlierenzauer took his first World Cup victory 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 2006/07. 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 birthday, but finished the tournament in second place, behind Anders Jacobsen (Norway), and in front of Simon Ammann (Switzerland).

Schlierenzauer took fourth place in World Cup 2006/07. He was second, but Adam Małysz from Poland ended up taking the first-place position from Anders Jacobsen, so Schlierenzauer finished third. His coach deemed the event in Planica too demanding for 17-year-old Schlierenzauer, so he did not compete there and ended finishing fourth, behind Adam Małysz, Anders Jacobsen and Simon Ammann.

2007/08 World Cup

At the beginning of the World Cup 2007/08, Schlierenzauer took 2nd place on the World Cup list, behind his teammate Thomas Morgenstern. He also took 2nd place in Oberstdorf,Germany, during the Four Hills Tournament 2007/08. 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 was moved due to strong winds. He was one of the favorites for the tournament, but, due to variable weather conditions, arrived only in 42nd position in the first series and did not enter the second series. At the end of the Four Hills Tournament, he 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 25 January 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 teammate Thomas Morgenstern.

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

He also took part in the 2008 Nordic 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 ranked second overall in the 2007/08 World Cup, 233 points behind his teammate Thomas Morgenstern. In March 2008, he improved the Austrian national record on flying hills to 233.5 meters, which was also the longest jump of Planica 2008 ski jumping events.

2008/09 World Cup

On 11 February 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 an end in Oberstdorf during the ski flying event on 14 February, when Schlierenzauer arrived in 8th position.

On 21 February he won 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 8 March at Lahti, Finland, taking his number of wins to 11 for that season, one victory shy of Janne Ahonen's record of 12 wins in one season.

On 20 March 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 the World Cup over a single season, becoming the first person to obtain more than 2000 points. The current records of wins, podiums and points in a single world cup season is held by Peter Prevc.

2009/10 World Cup

In the 2009/10 World Cup, Schlierenzauer finished second behind Simon Ammann. He celebrated 8 World Cup victories including wins in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck during the Four Hills Tournament. Later on he won two individual bronze medals at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, and a gold medal in the team competition with Wolfgang Loitzl, Andreas Kofler and Thomas Morgenstern.

2010/11 World Cup

At the beginning of the 2010/11 World Cup, Schlierenzauer suffered an injury and missed the first two events of the Four Hills Tournament. Even though he was recovering from injury, he managed to take two victories at the Vikersund ski flying hill and, later in the season, won three gold medals at FIS Nordic World Ski Championships at Holmenkollen in Oslo.

2011/12 World Cup

Schlierenzauer celebrated his first victory of the 2011/12 season in Harrachov on 9 December 2011. On 6 January 2012, Schlierenzauer won the 4 Hills Tournament for the first time. As of 5 February 2012, Schlierenzauer has 40 World Cup victories, 1 gold and 2 bronze Olympic medals, and 8 gold and 2 silver medals at World championships.

2012/13 World Cup

In the 2012–13 season he won the World Cup individual standings.