Maier, Hermann

Hermann Maier, (born December 7, 1972, Flachau, Austria), Austrian skier who won two gold medals at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and one silver at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy.

As a child Maier idolized the great World Cup skiers of the day, including fellow countryman Franz Klammer. Maier’s father owned a skiing school, and the boy developed superior technique at a young age. He was accepted into the Austrian national ski academy at age 15 but was dropped from the program within a year because of knee problems and his small size (50 kg; 110 lb). He took a job as a bricklayer’s apprentice and during the winters worked as a skiing instructor.

In 1995, at age 22 and bigger and stronger after seven years of manual labour, Maier quit his job and tried once more to become a World Cup skier. He attracted enough attention on the Europa Cup circuit to earn three World Cup starts late in the 1995–96 season and finished 11th in a giant slalom competition in Norway. During the 1996–97 season he was hampered by a wrist injury, so it was not until 1997–98, the season leading up to the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, that Maier was truly a regular on the World Cup circuit. He took full advantage of his shot at skiing glory. Through January 1998 he won 8 World Cup races—including 5 straight—and finished among the top three in 13 of 17 races.

At Nagano, just 17 seconds after starting his downhill run, Maier crashed and suffered shoulder and knee injuries that forced him out of that race and the following day’s slalom competition. Three days later, however, he returned to action and won the gold medal in the supergiant slalom (super-G). Three days after that victory Maier crashed again during his first run in the giant slalom, but he returned for the second run to win another gold medal. A week later Maier clinched the overall World Cup title. For the 1998–99 World Cup season, he picked up where he left off, still dominating the sport.

He continued to dominate in World Cup events and again won the overall World Cup title in 2000 and 2001. However, in 2001 Maier was injured in a motorcycle accident in which he nearly lost a leg. His injuries kept him from competing in any skiing events in 2002, including those at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. He eventually recovered, taking home his first postaccident medal in a 2003 World Cup event; the following year marked his fourth overall World Cup title win.

Maier returned to the Olympic stage in 2006 and won a silver medal in the super-G. He announced, however, that those Olympic Games would be his last, and the following year he failed to win any medals in the Alpine skiing world championships, the first time Maier competed in a major event without winning a race. Maier won a 54th career World Cup race in November 2008, but a few months later he suffered a knee injury. After a difficult recovery from surgery, he retired from competitive skiing in October 2009.