Benjamin Raich

Benjamin Raich (born 28 February 1978 in Arzl im Pitztal, Tyrol) is a retired champion World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Austria. With 14 medals won at Winter Olympics and World Championships, 36 World Cup race victories (in all disciplines except downhill), one first place and five second places in the World Cup overall ranking, three victories of the slalom World Cup, three victories of the combined World Cup, two victories of the giant slalom World Cup and the highest score of career World Cup points (ahead of Norwegian Kjetil André Aamodt), he is considered among the best alpine racers in World Cup history.

Benjamin Raich

Alpine skier
Raich in March 2017
Disciplines	Slalom, giant slalom, combined, super-G, downhill
Club	S.V. Leins Pitztal – Tirol
Born	(1978-02-28) 28 February 1978 Arzl im Pitztal, Tyrol, Austria
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
World Cup debut	10 March 1996 (age 18)
Retired	10 September 2015 (age 37)
Website	Raich.at
Olympics
Teams	4 (2002–2014)
Medals	4 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams	9 (1999–2015)
Medals	10 (3 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	18 (1998–2015)
Wins	36 (14 SL, 14 GS, 1 SG, 7 AC)
Podiums	92
Overall titles	1 (2006)
Discipline titles	8 (3 SL, 2 GS, 3 AC)
Medal record International alpine ski competitions Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 2 0 2 World Championships 3 6 1 Total 5 6 3 World Cup race podiums Event 1st 2nd 3rd Slalom 14 11 13 Giant 14 10 11 Super-G 1 5 2 Downhill 0 0 0 Combined 7 3 1 Parallel 0 0 0 Total 36 29 27 Olympic Games 2006 Turin Giant slalom 2006 Turin Slalom 2002 Salt Lake City Slalom 2002 Salt Lake City Combined World Championships 2005 Bormio Slalom 2005 Bormio Combined 2007 Åre Team event 2001 St. Anton Slalom 2005 Bormio Giant slalom 2005 Bormio Team event 2007 Åre Super combined 2009 Val-d'Isère Giant slalom 2011 Garmisch Team event 2005 Bormio Super-G Junior World Ski Championships 1996 Hoch-Ybrig Slalom 1997 Schladming Giant slalom 1998 Megève Giant slalom 1998 Megève Slalom 1998 Megève Combination

Career

After winning Junior World Championships in both slalom and giant slalom, Raich made his World Cup debut in March 1996. He scored his first victory in 1999, in slalom.

In 2001 he won the silver medal in slalom at the World Championships, and at the end of the season he won the slalom World Cup. In 2002 he won two bronze medals at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Raich, who became better at faster specialities such as super-G and downhill with age also, in 2005 barely missed out on the overall World Cup title, placing second to American Bode Miller. At the 2005 World Championships he won a total of five medals, one for each race except for the downhill.

He won the 2006 World Cup overall title in the most successful season of his career, as well as Olympic gold medals in slalom and giant slalom at the Turin Olympics.

Throughout his career Raich has been known for his consistency which led to him to second places in the overall world cup in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 (narrowly missing out the titles in both 2007 and 2009 by 13 points and 2 points respectively, both times behind Svindal).

His last World Cup race victory came in February 2012 in Swiss Crans Montana, where he won his first and only World Cup victory in super-G. In March 2014, he reached the podium for the first time in more than two years by finishing second (after Ted Ligety) in a giant slalom race in Kranjska Gora, the same place where he also won his first top-3 result more than 15 years earlier (in January 1999). His last top three finish came in early March 2015 in a giant slalom race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen that came to be one of his very last races in the alpine world cup.

On September 10, 2015, he announced his retirement.

World Cup results

Season standings

Season	Age	Overall	Slalom	Giant slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
1998	20	96	—	37	—	—	—
1999	21	10	7	6	32	—	—
2000	22	9	6	4	—	—	—
2001	23	4	1	4	—	—	—
2002	24	9	19	2	—	—	—
2003	25	8	6	8	37	—	—
2004	26	3	3	4	8	35	2
2005	27	2	1	1	6	26	1
2006	28	1	3	1	15	28	1
2007	29	2	1	3	13	32	5
2008	30	2	8	2	3	36	6
2009	31	2	10	2	14	32	5
2010	32	2	6	3	4	—	1
2011	33	11	15	19	8	54	18
2012	34	12	16	13	7	31	12
2013	35	20	18	16	38	—	8
2014	36	20	17	6	—	—	—
2015	37	28	23	9	—	—	—

Season titles

9 titles: 1 overall, 2 giant slalom, 3 slalom, 3 combined

Season	Discipline
2001	Slalom
2005	Giant slalom
	Slalom
	Combined
2006	Overall
	Giant slalom
	Combined
2007	Slalom
2010	Combined

Individual races

36 total: 14 slalom, 14 giant slalom, 1 super-G, 7 combined

Season	Date	Location	Race
1999	7 January 1999	Schladming, Austria	Slalom
	10 January 1999	Flachau, Austria	Giant slalom
	17 January 1999	Wengen, Switzerland	Slalom
2000	26 February 2000	Yongpyong, South Korea	Giant slalom
	18 March 2000	Bormio, Italy	Giant slalom
2001	14 January 2001	Wengen, Switzerland	Slalom
	21 January 2001	Kitzbühel, Austria	Slalom
	23 January 2001	Schladming, Austria	Slalom
	11 March 2001	Åre, Sweden	Slalom
2002	21 December 2001	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia	Giant slalom
2004	3 January 2004	Flachau, Austria	Giant slalom
	18 January 2004	Wengen, Switzerland	Slalom
	27 January 2004	Schladming, Austria	Slalom
2005	5 December 2004	Beaver Creek, CO, USA	Slalom
	14 January 2005	Wengen, Switzerland	Combined
	2005 World Championships
	26 February 2005	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia	Giant slalom
2006	21 December 2005	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia	Giant slalom
	7 January 2006	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant slalom
	13 January 2006	Wengen, Switzerland	Super combined
	22 January 2006	Kitzbühel, Austria	Combined
	3 February 2006	Chamonix, France	Super combined
	2006 Winter Olympics
	10 March 2006	Shiga Kōgen, Japan	Slalom
	17 March 2006	Åre, Sweden	Giant slalom
2007	12 November 2006	Levi, Finland	Slalom
	6 January 2007	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant slalom
	23 January 2007	Schladming, Austria	Slalom
	2007 World Championships
	3 March 2007	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia	Giant slalom
	9 March 2007	Kvitfjell, Norway	Super combined
	18 March 2007	Lenzerheide, Switzerland	Slalom
2008	9 December 2007	Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria	Slalom
2009	7 December 2008	Beaver Creek, CO, USA	Giant slalom
	12 December 2008	Val-d'Isère, France	Super combined
	10 January 2009	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant slalom
	13 March 2009	Åre, Sweden	Giant slalom
2010	11 December 2009	Val-d'Isère, France	Super combined
2012	25 February 2012	Crans Montana, Switzerland	Super-G

World Championship results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant   slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined	Team event
1999	20	5	DNF2	—	—	—	not run
2001	22	2	DNF2	—	—	—
2003	24	4	9	—	—	—
2005	26	1	2	3	—	1	2
2007	28	4	DNF1	—	—	2	1
2009	30	DSQ2	2	5	—	DNF1	cancelled
2011	32	—	—	4	—	5	2
2013	34	13	9	—	—	DNF2	—
2015	36	DNF1	DNF1	—	—	—	—

Olympic results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant  slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
2002	23	3	4	—	—	3
2006	27	1	1	21	—	DNF
2010	31	4	6	14	—	6
2014	35	DNF1	7	—	—	—

Personal

His sister Carina Raich also is a ski racer. Benjamin Raich is married to skier Marlies Schild. They have three children together.

See also

• Ski World Cup Most podiums & Top 10 results

External links

• Benjamin Raich at the International Ski Federation
• Benjamin Raich World Cup standings at the International Ski Federation
• Benjamin Raich at Ski-DB Alpine Ski Database
• Benjamin Raich at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Official website
• Austrian Ski team – official site – Benjamin Raich – (in German)
• Atomic Skis – athletes – Benjamin Raich

Awards
Preceded by Georg Totschnig	Austrian Sportsman of the year 2006	Succeeded by Thomas Vanek