Anna Schaffelhuber

Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber (born 26 January 1993) is a German para-alpine skier. At the 2014 Winter Paralympics she won five gold medals, becoming only the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events.

Early life Schaffelhuber was born in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. She was born with an incomplete spinal cord and as a result has paraplegia and uses a wheelchair. She began monoskiing at age five and at age fourteen received a scholarship to join a national junior skiing programme.

Career Schaffelhuber competes in the LW10 para-alpine skiing classification using a sitting mono-ski and outriggers. She also finished fourth in two events, the super combined and the slalom, and seventh in the giant slalom.

At the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships held in La Molina, Spain, she successfully defended her title in the slalom, winning the gold medal in a time of 2 minutes 26.18 seconds. She won four other medals; silver medals in the giant slalom and super-G; and bronze medals in the super combined and downhill. She won a second gold medal in the super-G, finishing first in a time of 1 minute 29.11 seconds. Competing in the slalom she was initially disqualified for not having her outriggers in a stationary position at the start of her first run and compatriot Anna-Lena Forster was identified as the gold medal winner in press releases. Following an appeal Schaffelhuber was reinstated and awarded her third gold medal of the Games with Forster winning the silver medal. Schaffelhuber won a fourth gold medal in the combined, with Forster again taking silver as the two German skiers were the only athletes to complete the race. She won her fifth gold medal, completing a clean sweep in the sitting events, by winning the giant slalom in a combined time of 2 minutes 51.26 seconds. She became the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events after Lauren Woolstencroft in 2010. For her performance at the Games, Schaffelhuber was awarded Best Female at the Paralympic Sports Awards.

Awards In November 2010 Schaffelhuber was voted the International Paralympic Committee's athlete of the month, taking 45% of the public vote. In November 2011 she was named Germany's Disabled Athlete of the Year and she was the German National Paralympic Committee's 2013 Female Disabled Athlete of Year.