Little ambition, great success

The German Rosi Mittermaier was not the favourite on 8 February 1976, when the women's downhill was the first alpine race on the program at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck. At 25 years old, Mittermaier was one of the oldest and most experienced skiers in the field, but the really big successes had failed to materialise. “I was never very ambitious,” she said later.

Still, her record was about to change that day in 1976. Following a tip from her coach, she pushed seven times with her poles on the flat starting section of the downhill. This immediately gave her a lead, which she defended to the finish and won gold. When she also won the slalom three days later, fans and the public dubbed her ‘Gold Rosi’. Everyone hoped she would win the Olympic hat-trick in the giant slalom, but in the end, it was ‘only’ silver: “I was still so happy,” remembered Mittermaier.

Finally, though, there was a third gold. Between 1948 and 1980, the Olympic Games were also counted as the World Championships - and there was also the combined, which was not an Olympic event. Mittermaier was unbeatable in this overall ranking of all three races, creating a wave of pride in her Bavarian homeland. On the journey back to her hometown of Reit im Winkel in a luxury limousine, she had to stop in every village to wave, shake hands and sign autographs. “But I was only skiing”, said the typically modest Mittermaier.  

Six weeks after her triumph as the most successful female athlete at the 1976 Olympic Games, ‘Gold-Rosi’ retired. She remained modest for the rest of her life, until her passing in 2023 – and will remain a skiing legend forever.