Martina Accola

A slalom specialist, Switzerland’s Marina Accola made her Olympic Winter Games début at Lillehammer in 1994, where she finished 17th. At the 1998 Nagano Olympics, she had a slalom finish of seventh. Accola had three slalom podium finishes in the 1997 European Cup, two World Cup podiums (second in 1995, third in 1997), and three-times she was a silver medalist at the National Championships (1996-98). Her first international competition was the 1992 World Cup in Schruns, Austria, where she finished 21st in the slalom.

Accola’s parents Paul (a farmer) and Anna lived next to a ski hill, and Martina started skiing at the age of eight. She had three brothers, two older ones, Andreas and Paul, and one younger one, Thomas. Paul was a five-time Olympian in alpine skiing, winning a bronze medal in the combined event at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. He was the 1992 World Cup overall champion and a three-time World Championships medalist (one silver, two bronze). While skiing, Martina Accola worked as a business clerk. Her hobbies included badminton, tennis, cooking and reading, and she had pet chickens.