Austria is a famous skiing area and many of the world most famous skiers were born there.

-      Armin Assinger (7.June 1964)

He won 4 World Cup races and is currently the host of the “Millionenshow”.

-      Michaela Dorfmeister (25.March 1973)

She won the World Cup for GiantSlalom, one for Downhill and one for Super-G.

-      Stephan Eberharter (24.March 1969)

He won the World Cup in 2002 and2003.

-      Andreas Goldberger (29.November 1972)

Goldberger is a ski jumper, who wonamong a other prices the World Cup 3 times and the Four Hills Tournament twice.

-      Renate Goetschl (6.August 1975)

She won 9 World Championship medalsand two Olympic medals in various skiing categories.

-      Christl Haas (19.September 1943 – 8.July 2001)

Haas won the World Cup, the WorldChampionship and the Olympics in the category “downhill”.

-      Herman Maier (7.December 1972)

Maier is seen world-wide as one ofthe best skiers. He won the World cup title twice, two Olympic gold medals andthree World Championship titles among many other prices. Although he had toundergo a surgery, where his leg was almost amputated, after a severemotorcycle accident, he nevertheless kept skiing and winning.

-      Ulrike Maier (22.October 1967 – 29.January 1994)

Ulrike won gold twice in the WorldAlpine Ski Championship. She died during the World cup in 1994, after shecrashed into a post at 120 km/h speed.

- Franz Klammer (3.December 1953)

Unanimously considered in skiing circles the greatest downhill racer of all time and to this day still holds the record for most downhill wins (25).  Furthermore he is an Olympic Gold medalist, won the World cup downhill 5 times and became World CHampion.

-      Patrick Ortlieb (17.May 1967)

He won gold at the Winter olympicsin 1992.

-      Annemarie Moser-Proell (27.March 1953)

Moser-Proll was the most successfulfemale skier in the 1970s. She won 3 Olympic medals and 6 World cup titlesincluding 62 individual Word Cup victories more than any other female skier andmost of the male skiers.

-      Benjamin Raich (28.February 1978)

Among his many prices he won the2006 Winter Olympics in Slalom.

-      Karl Schnabl (8.March 1954)

After winning gold in large hill atthe Winter Olympics 1976 and some other events he became a traumatologysurgeon.

-      Karl Schranz (18.November 1938)

Although facing many accidents,sicknesses and unfair judging, he nevertheless won the Olympics four times andbecame one of the best alpine skiers ever.

-      Thomas Stangassinger (15.September 1965)

He won among other prices the 1994Olympics in slalom.

-      Hubert Strolz (26.June 1962)

He won gold at the Olympics 1988and the World Cup the same year. Now he runs a skiing and snowboard school inWarh.

-      Ernst Vettori (25.June 1964)

Ernst Vettori was a ski jumper. Hewon the Four Hills Tournament twice and the Winter Olympics in 1992. He is nowthe marketing director of the Austrian Ski Assosiation.

-      Anita Wachter (12.February 1967)

She won the World Cup in skiingcategories several times.

-      Felix Gottwald (13.January 1876)

He began his career at the age of18 years, won the Olympic games twice and the World Championship once.

-      Toni Sailer (17.November 1935)

Seen as one of the best skiers inhistory, he was the first to win all three Alpine skiing events at the WinterOlympics.

FormulaOne

-      Gerhard Berger (27.August 1959)

He won ten grand prix and started210 times a race in his life. Now he owns 50% of the Scuderia Toro RossoFormula One team.

-      Niki Lauda (22.February 1949)

Niki Lauda is he most famousAustrian Formula One driver. He won the F1 World Championship 3 times. At theGerman GP his car was served off track and he suffered severe burnings, sincehe was trapped inside the burning car. From this moment on he always wears ared cap to cover his scars. He became an entrepreneur after his racing career.

-      Roland Ratzenberger (4.July 1960 – 30.April1994)

Ratzenberger died at thequalifications for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in a car accident. One daylater Ayrton Senna died on the same track. In his car they found a burnedAustrian flag, which he wanted to raise, if he won the race, in the name ofRatzenberger.

Mountaineering

-      Matthias Auckenthaler

He was the first to climb the northface of Furchetta.

-      Peter Aufschnaiter (2.November 1899 – 19.October1973)

Peter was the mountaineer whojoined Heinrich Harrer in the journey, which was shown in the movie “Sevenyears in Tibet”.

-      Karl Blodig (16.October 1859 – 7.Spetember 1956)

    Blodig was the first mountaineer to climb alpinemountains above 4000 meters. 

-      Hermann Buhl (21.September 1924 – 27.June 1957)

The first mountaineer who ascendedthe Nanga Parbat (1953) and the Broad Peak (1957) was Hermann Buhl.

-      Kurt Diemberger (1932)

He ascended the Broad Peak withHermann Buhl and was then the first to ascend Dhaulagiri (1960).

-      Heinrich Harrer (6.July 1912 – 7.January 2006)

He was the first human to ascendCarstensz Pyramid. He wrote a book, which was filmed as the movie “Seven yearsin Tibet”.

-      Peter Habeler (22.July 1942)

He and Reinhold Messner were thetwo first humans, who ascended the Mount Everest without oxygen.

-      Markus Kronthaler (5.April 1967 – 8.July 2006)

He died during an expedition toBroad Peak. His body was left on the mountain.

-      Sepp Joechler

He was the first to ascend the ChoOyo with Herbert Tichy.

-      Josef Larch

In 1956, Gasherbrum II was first ascended by Josef Larch and the Austrian expedition.

-      Fritz Moravec (27.April 1922 – 17.March 1997)

Moravec was part of the firstexpedition to Gasherbrum II.

-      Marcus Schmuck (18.April 1925 – 21.August 2005)

Schmuck was part of the firstexpedition to ascend Broad Peak and he was the leader of the OEAV KarakoramExpedition.

-      Herbert Tichy (1.June 1912 – 26.September 1987)

Tichy was the first mountaineer, whoascended the Cho Oyo.

-      Hans Willenpart

Hans Willenpart joined the firstexpedition to Gasherbrum II.

-      Fritz Wintersteller (21.Octoober 1927)

Wintersteller was member of thefirst expedition, who ascended Broad Peak in 1957.

Hockey

-      Reinhard Divis (4.July 1975)

Now he plays for Red Bull SalzburgEC. He was the first Austrian to play in the NHL.

-      Michael Grabner (5.October 1987)

He currently plays for ManitobaMoose in the American Hockey League.

-      Thomas Vanek (19.January 1984)

He was drafted by the BuffaloSabres 5^th overall in the 32003 NHL Entry Draft, what makes him thehighest Austrian draft pick.

 Soccer

-      Andreas Herzog (10.Septmeber 1968)

The soccer player is Austria capleader.

-      Josef Hickersberger (27.April 1948)

The former soccer player and coachof “Rapid Vienna” is since 2006 the coach of the national team of Austria.

-      Hans Krankl (14.February 1953)

He holds the world record of 39goals in 69 games.

-      Toni Polster (10.March 1964)

The famous soccer striker isleading in the numbers of goals for Austria.

-      Herbert Prohaska (8.August 1955)

Prohaska is one of the mostinternationally famous Austrian soccer players. He was 4 times Austrianfootball champion.

-      Matthias Sindelar (10.February 1903 – 23.January1939)

He was voted the best Austrianfootball player of the 20^th century. Sometimes he was called “Mozartof Football”.

Tennis

-      Sybille Bammer (27.April 1980)

The professional female tennisplayer is one of the three mothers playing on the WTA tour. She is rankednumber 19.

-      Julian Knowle (29.April 1974)

He is one of the most successfulAustrian double players. Furthermore, since he is left-handed, he is one of thefew players, who use both hands for every stroke.

-      Stefan Koubek (2.January 1977)

Koubek won three titles and isranked number 20.

-      Jurgen Melzer (22.May 1981)

He won one title and is rankednumber 28.

-      Yvonne Meusburger (3.October 1983)

Yvonne is at the moment thirdhighest ranked female player in Austria.

-      Thomas Muster (2.October 1967)

Thomas Muster is Austria’s mostfamous Tennis player. In 1995, he won the French Open competition and in 1996he reached ranking 1 in the world.

-      Tamira Paszek (6.December 1990)

Tamira is the Second highest rankedfemale tennis player in Austria.

-      Barbara Schett (10.March 1976)

She played for Austria at theSydney 2000 Olympics and reached the quarter finals. She has won already more than30 times for Austria. Furthermore, she was ranked number 8.

Others

-      Kate Allen (25.April 1970)

The Austrian tri-athlete won the2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

-      Judith Deutsch (18.August 1918 – 20.November2004)

The female swimmer held everywomen’s middle and long distance record in Austria in the year 1935.

-      Toni Fritsch (10.July 1945 – 13.September 2005)

After a successful soccer career,he played football in the USA. IN 1972, he won the Super Bowl with his team. Heis the only Austrian, who ever achieved this.

-      Stephanie Graf (26.April 1973)

The middle distance runner holdsthe current 800 meters record in Austria.

-      Markus Rogan (4.May 1982)

The Austrian swimmer won twosilvermedals at the 2004 summer Olympics. Furthermore, he swam for the StanfordUniversity from the year 2000 to 2004.

-      Nicole Trimmel (13.October 1982)

The Austrian kickboxer managed toobtain the title of World Champion.

Werner Schlager (28.September 1972)

The Austrian table tennis playerwon the ITTF Single World Championship in 2003. 

-      Arnold Schwarzenegger

Read under “Actors”.

-      Peter Seisenbacher (25.March 1960)

The judo fighter managed to wingold twice at the Olympic games.

-      Christoph Sieber (9.January 1971)

The Austrian sailor won gold inMistral class in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

-      Elisabeth Theurer (20.September 1956)

The Austrian horse rider won theEuropean Dressage Championship in 1979 and the 1980 Summer Olympics.

-      Georg Totschnig (25.May 1971)

The Austrian road bicycle racer wona stage at the 2005 Tour de France.