Austrian · Feldkirch, Austria · Born 1 April 1997Austrian alpine skier and the first Austrian woman to win a World Championship slalom title since Marlies Schild, whose breakout 2021 season saw her deny Mikaela Shiffrin a fifth straight world title.
Katharina Liensberger was born on 1 April 1997 in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, and practiced competitive gymnastics for eight years before focusing on skiing, crediting the discipline with aiding her technical precision on snow. She made her World Cup debut in January 2016 and won a team event silver medal at her first Olympics in Pyeongchang 2018, where she also finished eighth in the individual slalom. Liensberger's breakthrough came in the 2020-21 season. At the World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo she won gold in the slalom, denying four-time defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin a fifth consecutive world title, and added a second gold in the parallel event plus bronze in giant slalom. Weeks later she recorded her first-ever World Cup victory, again beating Shiffrin, in a slalom at Åre, Sweden, ending a six-year drought for Austrian women in World Cup competition, and went on to win the season's slalom crystal globe. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Liensberger added a gold medal in the mixed team event and silver in the individual slalom to her collection, giving her a well-rounded medal haul across Olympic and World Championship competition in the technical disciplines. Known within the Austrian team for her cheerful demeanor on course, she has continued competing at the top level of World Cup slalom and giant slalom into the mid-2020s.
Denying Mikaela Shiffrin a fifth consecutive World Championship slalom title in 2021, in one of the sport's biggest upsets of the era
How They Played
Technical slalom and giant slalom specialist known for fluid, gymnastics-influenced movement and remarkable consistency, rarely missing a podium in her best seasons
Lasting Impact
Regarded as one of Austria's brightest technical skiers of her generation, whose breakout 2021 season ended a long drought for Austrian women's slalom skiing
Career Honours
- 2021 World Champion, Slalom (denying Mikaela Shiffrin a 5th straight title)
- 2021 World Champion, Parallel Event
- 2022 Olympic Gold Medalist, Team Event
- 2022 Olympic Silver Medalist, Slalom
Austrian Athletes