Downhill, Women

Annemarie Moser-Pröll had been the best power skier of the early 1970s. In 1971, 1972, and 1975 she was World Cup champion in the downhill, giant slalom, and overall, and added downhill and overall titles in 1973-74, winning the downhill World Championship in 1974. At the 1972 Winter Olympics, as Annemarie Pröll, she was favored in both the downhill and giant slalom but had skied poorly, for her, and won only silver medals in both races. After her 1975 World Cup season, she got married and retired, skipping the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics. But early in 1977 she returned to the circuit and her dominance of the downhill, winning the World Cup again in 1978 and 1979. But in 1980 she was frustrated by an old nemesis, Marie-Theres Nadig, who had won the 1972 downhill gold medal that Pröll had so wanted. In the early World Cup lead-up to Lake Placid, Nadig had won six downhills and Moser-Pröll only one. But on Whiteface, Moser-Pröll was an easy winner, going off as the sixth starter, and posting 1:37.52, which defeated Hanni Wenzel by 0.70 seconds and Nadig, the bronze medalist, by 0.84. Moser-Pröll would retire for good after the 1980 season, ending her career with numerous records for the World Cup that still stand over 25 years later. She won six overall World Cups, seven downhill World Cups, 18 World Cup titles in all, and 62 World Cup races, 36 of those in the downhill, and 16 in giant slalom – all records. Her records would have been even better had she skied in the era of the super-G, an event she would likely have dominated.