Facts about Michelle Gisin and Her Alpine Skiing Career
Michelle Gisin is a Swiss alpine ski racer, who claimed gold in combined discipline at 2018 Winter Olympics. Though she is most known for this victory, Michelle also shows good results at the World Cup and other famous competitions. Want to know more about the athlete? Here we go.
Career Beginnings
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Michelle Gisin was born on December 5, 1993, in Rothenfluh, Switzerland. She is a younger sister of alpine ski racers Marc and Dominique Gisin.
Gisin’s path to success started at 2011 Swiss Junior National Championships, when she won a bronze medal in downhill. In 2012, she became a winner in combined and a bronze medalist in Super G.
In 2013, the athlete took part in Junior World Championships and gained a silver medal in slalom there. The same year, she debuted at the senior World Championships and finished 26th in slalom. However, in 2017, she became a silver medalist in combined.
World Cup and Other International Competitions
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Michelle Gisin debuted at the World Cup in 2012 Semmering. In 2016 Val d’Isere, she reached her first podium after earning silver in combined. In 2017, she was a bronze medalist in downhill in Lake Louise and a silver medalist in Super-G in St. Moritz. In 2018 Crans-Montana, Michelle won a silver medal in combined.
Competing at the European Cup, she gained 3 gold medals in slalom in 2014, 3 silver medals in slalom in 2013, super combined and slalom in 2014 as well as bronze medals in slalom in 2014 and 2015. Moreover, Gisin is a silver medalist of 2013 Australian New Zealand Cup in slalom and a bronze medalist of 2014 South American Cup in slalom.
Winter Olympics
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At 2014 Winter Olympics, Michelle Gisin participated only in slalom event and finished 28th. At 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, she took part in all the events, except giant slalom. She became an Olympic champion in combined discipline, finishing with the total time of 2:20.90. The alpine skier was also 16th in slalom, 9th in Super-G and 8th in downhill.
Though there was much rumor that the main Michelle’s motivator was that her sister Dominique won a gold medal at 2014 Sochi Olympics, the skier told that they have no rivalry at all: “There was never competition. It was the biggest moment of my life when she won that gold and I think today was one of the biggest moments of our lives, but her gold will forever be the biggest thing. She made me believe that you can grab the stars and that’s what I did today”.
She also added: “Now we’re going to celebrate and party really hard in our hometown Engelberg, but it has to wait because I’ve got three more weeks of World Cup skiing”.
Though Michelle Gisin doesn’t have so many medals and titles as many other alpine skiers, she constantly competes with, she managed to show her best at 2018 Winter Olympics. Maybe, it was just the start of the athlete’s path to stardom.
