Ingemar Stenmark- A ski legend
Ingemar Stenmark, born on March 18, 1956, in Sweden, was one of the most successful slalom and giant slalom skier in the history of sports. As an Alpine skier, and slalom specialist, he won the Alpine World Cup, in 1976, and until his retirement, he won 86 World Cup races, more than any other skier.
He was raised in the nearby small town of Tarnaby with his grandparents. Since his five years, he began skiing and three years later, with his sweet eight years, he won his first World Cup race. Encouraged and trained by his own father, an avid skier, Ingemar used simple toe-strap bindings. His father, who had placed as high as fifth in a national slalom event, was a road construction worker and bulldozer operator who also owned three ski lifts. At the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, Stenmark won the bronze medal in the giant slalom, and at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, New York, U.S., he won gold medals in both the slalom and giant slalom competitions.
Ingemar was a perfectionist, something that brought him in the top skier ever. As a young child, until being an adult, he won’t lose a race.
After going to the basic school, he decided to forego secondary school, partly due to the fact that nearest gymnasium, or school, was 150 miles away and partly because he wanted to concentrate on his skiing.
He said: “School was a drag, I couldn’t develop as a skier and be a good student at the same time. I decided to do one thing well.”
Finally, Stenmark made his World Cup debut in December 1973 at age 17. He won 86 wins, and more international races than any other alpine skier in history. Ingemar finished the Alpine Skiing World Cup, the FIS Championships, and the Olympic competition. For two years, he was, together with Björn Borg, the “national icon” of sports, and Swedish everyday life came to complete standstills whenever “Ingemar” was heading down the slopes. He married two times and became two children. He retired from the sport in 1989.
On December 26, 2004, he was in the Indian Ocean in Thailand, when the earthquake happened. The top Swedish skier was among those sports stars caught up in Asia’s quake catastrophe. Stenmark had to run for his life when a giant wave hit his Thai beach.
He said: “The water from one wave disappeared, but then it came back with terrifying speed”. Unfortunately, he and his girlfriend were not injured. They, finally, survived.
Originally published at www.mottocosmos.com on October 25, 2017.
