Rainer Schönfelder

Reiner Schönfelder was an Austrian Alpine skier participating at the 2002 Salt Lake City and 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. After placing an unfortunate fourth in the Alpine combined in 2002, he won two bronze medals in Alpine combined and slalom in 2006. He also finished eighth in the giant slalom at Torino.

Schönfelder won five World Cup slalom races in total and the overall slalom title in 2004. At the 2005 World Championships, he added two silver medals in both the slalom and team event. In 1996, Schönfelder had won two gold medals at the Youth Worlds in Alpine combined and giant slalom. He won two Austrian national titles, in 1996 (Alpine combined) and 2008 (super-G).

Due to several injuries, Schönfelder had no valid results between 2008 and 2010 and eventually retired during the 2013/14 season. He was also well known as a singer entering the Austrian charts. With his extroverted personality, Schönfelder was long considered a “colourful character”. For a time, he was seen with painted fingernails and appeared in several television shows and series.

Schönfelder caused a sensation at Wengen in January 2007 when to win a bet, on a day off from training he skied naked on the slopes. In 2013, he and his dance partner Manuela Stöckl won the eighth season of the television show Dancing Stars. He later opened three hotels in Austria, one of them with Hermann Maier.