Patrick Ortlieb

Patrick Ortlieb
Ortlieb in 2010
Personal information
Born (1967-05-20) 20 May 1967 (age 57)
Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria
OccupationAlpine skier
Height6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Skiing career
DisciplinesDownhill, Super-G, Combined
World Cup debut9 December 1988 (age 21)
RetiredJanuary 1999 (age 31)
Olympics
Teams2 – (1992, 1994)
Medals1 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams4 – (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997)
Medals1 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons11 – (198999)
Wins4 – (3 DH, 1 SG)
Podiums20 – (18 DH, 2 SG)
Overall titles0 – (7th in 1993)
Discipline titles0 – (3rd in DH, 199496)
Medal record
Men's alpine skiing
Representing  Austria
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1992 Albertville Downhill
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1996 Sierra Nevada Downhill

Patrick Ortlieb (born 20 May 1967) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Austria.[1][2] A specialist in the speed events, he was also a world champion in the downhill event.[3]

Born in Bregenz in Vorarlberg, Ortlieb started skiing early at the age of three. He won the downhill event at the 1992 Winter Olympics in France, gathered twenty World Cup podiums (sixty top tens), and was World Champion in 1996 in downhill. At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, he finished fourth in the downhill at Kvitfjell.[4][5][6][7] A month earlier, he won the famed downhill on the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, Austria.[8]

Five years later in January 1999, Ortlieb's racing career ended at age 31 after a serious crash during a practice run on the same slope at Kitzbühel. He suffered a compound fracture of the right femur and a badly dislocated and slightly fractured right hip after losing control and crashing into the safety nets at the Hausbergkante (mountain house corner).[9] Later in the year, he was elected to the National Council of Austria for the Freedom Party of Austria, where he stayed for three years.

He currently runs a four-star hotel, named Hotel Montana, in Lech am Arlberg in Vorarlberg.

He is the father of fellow alpine skier Nina Ortlieb.[10]

  1. ^ "It's all downhill for Austria's alpine gold medalist". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. 10 February 1992. p. 1D.
  2. ^ Johnson, William Oscar (17 February 1992). "La Face job". Sports Illustrated. p. 36.
  3. ^ New York Times – Skiing: Austrian captures downhill in a glide – 18 February 1996
  4. ^ Johnson, William Oscar (21 February 1994). "The Son finally rises". Sports Illustrated. (cover story). p. 20.
  5. ^ Powers, Tom (14 February 1994). "This Moe's no stooge on the slopes". Lewiston (ME) Sun-Journal. Knight-Ridder. p. 23.
  6. ^ Philips, Angus (14 February 1994). "Unheralded Tommy Moe races to first U.S. medal". Washington Post. p. A1.
  7. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Patrick Ortlieb". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.
  8. ^ "World Cup: Men's Downhill". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). 16 January 1994. p. 10E.
  9. ^ The Independent – Skiing: Ortlieb suffers horrific accident – 22 January 1999
  10. ^ "Ortlieb wins 1st World Cup, Brignone extends overall lead". Yahoo! Sports. 29 February 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2021.