STENMARK, INGEMAR

born March 18, 1956, Josesj, Lapland, Swed. Swedish alpine skier, a slalom specialist, who was one of the most successful performers in the history of the sport. In 1976 he became the first Scandinavian to win the Alpine World Cup (then based on slalom, giant slalom, and downhill races). He repeated the victory in 197778. At the time of his retirement he had won 86 World Cup races, more than any other skier. Stenmark began skiing at Trnaby at the age of five and won his first national competition at the age of eight. He trained from the age of 13 with the Swedish junior national team and won his first World Cup race late in 1974. He enjoyed his greatest season in 1979, when he won 13 individual World Cup races, bettering the season record of the French skier Jean-Claude Killy (12 races in 1967). At the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, Stenmark won the bronze medal for the giant slalom, and at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, New York, U.S., he won gold medals for both the slalom and giant slalom competitions. Stenmark, a perfectionist by nature, preferred the precision of the slalom events to the all-out daring of the downhill, an event he seldom skied. With the rules change in 1978 setting a maximum number of points for specialty skiers, he did not win the World Cup overall title thereafter, although he continued to win World Cup titles for the slalom and giant slalom events. He retired from the sport in 1989.