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Hanni Wenzel
Personal information
Born	14 December 1956 (age 68); Straubing, Bavaria,; West Germany
Occupation	Alpine skier
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Skiing career
Disciplines	Giant slalom, slalom, combined, downhill, super-G
World Cup debut	1 March 1972 (age 15)
Retired	March 1984 (age 27)
Website	wwp-group.com
Olympics
Teams	2 – (1976, 1980)
Medals	4 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams	5 – (1974–82); includes two Olympics
Medals	9 (4 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	13 – (1972–84)
Wins	33
Podiums	89
Overall titles	2 – (1978, 1980)
Discipline titles	5 – (2 GS, 1 SL, 2 K)
Medal record
Women's alpine skiing
Representing Liechtenstein
World Cup race podiums
International competitions
Olympic Games
World Championships

Hannelore (Hanni) Wenzel^[1] (born 14 December 1956) is a retired Liechtensteiner alpine ski racer. Wenzel is a former Olympic, World Cup, and world champion. She won Liechtenstein's first-ever Olympic medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and its first two Olympic gold medals four years later in Lake Placid, New York.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Biography

Born in West Germany at Straubing, Bavaria, Wenzel moved to Liechtenstein at an early age. After she and her younger brother Andreas had success in ski racing – Hanni won the gold medal in slalom and silver in the combined at the 1974 World Championships – the family was granted Liechtenstein citizenship. Winning the slalom title on 8 February 1974, she did become the youngest female Alpine Skiing World Champion in the slalom discipline (17 years, 1 month, 25 days) - ousting Esme Mackinnon who was the first female Alpine Skiing Champion in 1931; the British racer was 17 years, 2 month and 17 days young when she was victorious in the slalom race on 19 February 1931. At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, she won the country's first Olympic medal, a bronze in the slalom at Axamer Lizum, and also picked up another world championship medal in the combined.

After winning the World Cup overall title in 1978, Wenzel's best year came in 1980. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, she won gold medals in the slalom and giant slalom, and just missed out on a sweep by taking the silver in the downhill at Whiteface Mountain. She also easily won the world championship gold medal in the combined event, its final edition as a "paper race" and her fourth world championship medal in that event. At the same Olympics, her brother also won a silver medal, placing Liechtenstein high in the medal ranking of the games. In addition to her Olympic success, she won nine World Cup races in 1980 and captured the overall, giant slalom, and combined season titles, and brother Andreas won the men's overall for a Wenzel family sweep of the overall titles. Her daughter Tina Weirather won a bronze medal in Super-G for Liechtenstein at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

Wenzel was banned from the 1984 Winter Olympics by the International Ski Federation (FIS) for accepting promotional payments directly, rather than through the national ski federation. Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden was also banned; both were double gold medalists in 1980.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Wenzel retired following the 1984 season with two Olympic titles, four World titles, two overall World Cups, three discipline World Cups plus three combined titles, and 33 World Cup victories. (Through 1980, the Olympics were also the World Championships.)

Through the 2018 Winter Olympics, Liechtenstein has won a total of ten medals at the Winter Olympics, with eight won by two sets of siblings – the Wenzels earned six, while brothers Willi and Paul Frommelt are responsible for two more.

World cup results

Season titles

7 titles – (2 overall, 2 giant slalom, 1 slalom, 2 combined)

Season	Discipline
1974	Giant slalom
1978	Overall
1978	Slalom
1980	Overall
	Giant slalom
	Combined
1983	Combined

Season standings

Season	Age	Overall	Slalom	Giant slalom	Super G	Downhill	Combined
1972	15	40	—	27	not run	—	not awarded
1973	16	5	6	3		18
1974	17	3	4	1		16
1975	18	2	2	5		12
1976	19	9	9	13		16	6
1977	20	5	5	8		11	not awarded
1978	21	1	1	2		15
1979	22	2	5	2		10
1980	23	1	2	1		3	1
1981	24	3	6	3		9	2
1982	25	19	9	14		—	—
1983	26	2	4	5	not awarded	—	1
1984	27	2	7	5	not awarded	3	4

Race victories

33 wins – (11 SL, 12 GS, 2 DH, 8 K)
89 podiums

Season	Date	Location	Discipline
1974	19 Dec 1973	Zell am See, Austria	Giant slalom
1975	21 Feb 1975	Naeba, Japan	Slalom
1975	14 Mar 1975	Sun Valley, USA	Slalom
1977	19 Jan 1977	Schruns, Austria	Combined
1978	15 Dec 1977	Madonna di Campiglio, Italy	Giant slalom
	10 Jan 1978	Les Mosses, Switzerland	Giant slalom
	22 Jan 1978	Maribor, Yugoslavia	Slalom
	24 Jan 1978	Berchtesgaden, West Germany	Slalom
	25 Jan 1978	Berchtesgaden, West Germany	Slalom
	2 Mar 1978	Stratton Mountain, USA	Giant slalom
1979	12 Dec 1978	Piancavallo, Italy	Giant slalom
	3 Feb 1979	Pfronten, West Germany	Slalom
	4 Feb 1979	Pfronten, West Germany	Combined
	8 Feb 1979	Maribor, Yugoslavia	Slalom
1980	8 Dec 1979	Limone Piemonte, Italy	Giant slalom
	14 Dec 1979	Limone Piemonte, Italy	Combined
	10 Jan 1980	Berchtesgaden, West Germany	Giant slalom
	16 Jan 1980	Arosa, Switzerland	Giant slalom
	21 Jan 1980	Bad Gastein, Austria	Slalom
	21 Jan 1980	Bad Gastein, Austria	Combined
	23 Jan 1980	Maribor, Yugoslavia	Slalom
	26 Jan 1980	Saint-Gervais, France	Giant slalom
	1980 Winter Olympics
	25 Feb 1980	Waterville Valley, USA	Giant slalom
1981	27 Jan 1981	Les Gets, France	Combined
1981	8 Feb 1981	Zwiesel, West Germany	Combined
1982	12 Dec 1981	Piancavallo, Italy	Combined
1982	18 Mar 1982	Furano, Japan	Giant slalom
1983	30 Jan 1983	Les Diablerets, Switzerland	Combined
1984	21 Dec 1983	Haus im Ennstal, Austria	Downhill
	22 Dec 1983	Haus im Ennstal, Austria	Giant slalom
	14 Jan 1984	Bad Gastein, Austria	Downhill
	15 Jan 1984	Bad Gastein, Austria	Combined
	20 Mar 1984	Zwiesel, West Germany	Slalom

World Championship results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
1974	17	1	7	not run	13	2
1976	19	3	20		11	3
1978	21	6	5		29	2
1980	23	1	1		2	1
1982	25	DNF	DNF		—	—

From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the World Championships for alpine skiing.
At the World Championships from 1954 through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).

Olympic results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
1976	19	3	20	not run	11	not run
1980	23	1	1		2
1984	27	—	—		—

Wenzel and Ingemar Stenmark were banned from the 1984 Olympics (endorsement compensation).

Family

Wenzel is a sister of World Cup ski racers Petra Wenzel and Andreas Wenzel, and the wife of Austrian ski racer Harti Weirather, the world champion in downhill in 1982. Wenzel and Weirather run their own sports marketing agency, and their daughter Tina Weirather is also a World Cup ski racer.^[4]^[8]

Honours

Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Principality of Liechtenstein (06/09/2017).^{[citation needed]}

References

^ "Alpine skiing: Weirather to miss Olympic Games through injury". Archived from the original on 10 March 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). vancouver2010.com. 23 January 2010
^ Steamboat Today: Olympic history: Winter games in the 1980s. steamboatpilot.com/ 13 February 2010
^ Hanni Wenzel Archived 28 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine. The official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games]
^ ^a ^b Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Hanni Wenzel". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 27 January 2011.
^ "Ski stars banned from Olympics". Ottawa Citizen. Reuters. 26 November 1983. p. 71.
^ "Ruling slaps Stenmark". Bend (OR) Bulletin. UPI. 7 November 1983. p. D-4.
^ "Winter Olympics will take place without three alpine skiers". Palm Beach Post. wire services. 25 January 1984. p. D4.
^ "Hanni WENZEL". Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). fisalpine.com