Benjamin Raich

Benjamin Raich (born 28 February 1978) is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. With 14 medals won at Winter Olympics and World Championships, 36 World Cup race victories (in all disciplines except downhill), one first place and five second places in the World Cup overall ranking, three victories of the slalom World Cup, three victories of the combined World Cup, two victories of the giant slalom World Cup and the highest score of career World Cup points (ahead of Norwegian Kjetil André Aamodt), he is considered among the best alpine racers in World Cup history.

Career After winning Junior World Championships in both slalom and giant slalom, Raich made his World Cup debut in March 1996. He scored his first victory in 1999, in slalom.

In 2001, Raich won the silver medal in slalom at the World Championships, and at the end of the season he won the slalom World Cup. In 2002 he won two bronze medals at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Raich, who became better at faster specialities such as super-G and downhill with age also, in 2005 barely missed out on the overall World Cup title, placing second to American Bode Miller. At the 2005 World Championships, he won a total of five medals, one for each race except for the downhill.

Raich won the 2006 World Cup overall title in the most successful season of his career, as well as Olympic gold medals in slalom and giant slalom at the Turin Olympics.

Throughout his career, Raich has been known for his consistency which led to him to second places in the overall world cup in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 (narrowly missing out the titles in both 2007 and 2009 by 13 points and 2 points respectively, both times behind Svindal).

Raich's last World Cup race victory came in February 2012 in Swiss Crans Montana, where he won his first and only World Cup victory in super-G. In March 2014, he reached the podium for the first time in more than two years by finishing second (after Ted Ligety) in a giant slalom race in Kranjska Gora, the same place where he also won his first top-three result more than 15 years earlier (in January 1999). His last top-three finish came in early March 2015 in a giant slalom race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen that came to be one of his final races in the alpine world cup.

On September 10, 2015, Raich announced his retirement.

World Cup results

Season standings Season Age Overall Slalom Giantslalom Super-G Downhill Combined 1998 20 96 — 37 — — — 1999 21 10 7 6 32 — — 2000 22 9 6 4 — — — 2001 23 4 1 4 — — — 2002 24 9 19 2 — — — 2003 25 8 6 8 37 — — 2004 26 3 3 4 8 35 2 2005 27 2 1 1 6 26 1 2006 28 1 3 1 15 28 1 2007 29 2 1 3 13 32 5 2008 30 2 8 2 3 36 6 2009 31 2 10 2 14 32 5 2010 32 2 6 3 4 — 1 2011 33 11 15 19 8 54 18 2012 34 12 16 13 7 31 12 2013 35 20 18 16 38 — 8 2014 36 20 17 6 — — — 2015 37 28 23 9 — — —

Season titles 9 titles: 1 overall, 2 giant slalom, 3 slalom, 3 combined Season Discipline 2001 Slalom 2005 Giant slalom Slalom Combined 2006 Overall Giant slalom Combined 2007 Slalom 2010 Combined

Individual races 36 total: 14 slalom, 14 giant slalom, 1 super-G, 7 combined

Season Date Location Race 1999 7 January 1999 Schladming, Austria Slalom 10 January 1999 Flachau, Austria Giant slalom 17 January 1999 Wengen, Switzerland Slalom 2000 26 February 2000 Yongpyong, South Korea Giant slalom 18 March 2000 Bormio, Italy Giant slalom 2001 14 January 2001 Wengen, Switzerland Slalom 21 January 2001 Kitzbühel, Austria Slalom 23 January 2001 Schladming, Austria Slalom 11 March 2001 Åre, Sweden Slalom 2002 21 December 2001 Kranjska Gora, Slovenia Giant slalom 2004 3 January 2004 Flachau, Austria Giant slalom 18 January 2004 Wengen, Switzerland Slalom 27 January 2004 Schladming, Austria Slalom 2005 5 December 2004 Beaver Creek, CO, USA Slalom 14 January 2005 Wengen, Switzerland Combined 2005 World Championships 26 February 2005 Kranjska Gora, Slovenia Giant slalom 2006 21 December 2005 Kranjska Gora, Slovenia Giant slalom 7 January 2006 Adelboden, Switzerland Giant slalom 13 January 2006 Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 22 January 2006 Kitzbühel, Austria Combined 3 February 2006 Chamonix, France Super combined 2006 Winter Olympics 10 March 2006 Shiga Kōgen, Japan Slalom 17 March 2006 Åre, Sweden Giant slalom 2007 12 November 2006 Levi, Finland Slalom 6 January 2007 Adelboden, Switzerland Giant slalom 23 January 2007 Schladming, Austria Slalom 2007 World Championships 3 March 2007 Kranjska Gora, Slovenia Giant slalom 9 March 2007 Kvitfjell, Norway Super combined 18 March 2007 Lenzerheide, Switzerland Slalom 2008 9 December 2007 Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria Slalom 2009 7 December 2008 Beaver Creek, CO, USA Giant slalom 12 December 2008 Val-d'Isère, France Super combined 10 January 2009 Adelboden, Switzerland Giant slalom 13 March 2009 Åre, Sweden Giant slalom 2010 11 December 2009 Val-d'Isère, France Super combined 2012 25 February 2012 Crans Montana, Switzerland Super-G

World Championship results Year Age Slalom Giant slalom Super-G Downhill Combined Team event 1999 20 5 DNF2 — — — not run 2001 22 2 DNF2 — — — 2003 24 4 9 — — — 2005 26 1 2 3 — 1 2 2007 28 4 DNF1 — — 2 1 2009 30 DSQ2 2 5 — DNF1 cancelled 2011 32 — — 5 — 5 2 2013 34 13 9 — — DNF2 — 2015 36 DNF1 DNF1 — — — —

Year Age Slalom Giant slalom Super-G Downhill Combined 2002 23 3 4 — — 3 2006 27 1 1 21 — DNF 2010 31 4 6 14 — 6 2014 35 DNF1 7 — — —

Personal His sister Carina Raich also is a ski racer. Benjamin Raich is married to skier Marlies Schild. They have three children together.