German · Munich, West Germany · Born 5 August 1950German alpine skier nicknamed 'Gold-Rosi' who won a stunning double gold at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics at age 25, narrowly missing an unprecedented clean sweep.
Rosa Anna Katharina Mittermaier was born on 5 August 1950 in Munich, the daughter of a ski instructor and restaurateur in the Bavarian resort of Reit im Winkl. She qualified for the West German team at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics aged just 17 but failed to crack the top 20, and spent nearly a decade as a moderately successful World Cup racer, winning only 10 individual races between 1969 and 1976 with what she described as a casual approach to training. At the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics, aged 25 and nicknamed 'Omi' (Grandma) by younger rivals as the oldest competitor in the field, Mittermaier transformed her career in a single week. She won her first-ever major downhill victory to claim gold, then won slalom gold four days later by a third of a second, becoming a double Olympic champion and the most successful athlete at those Games alongside Soviet cross-country skier Raisa Smetanina. Mittermaier's bid to become the first woman to sweep all three Alpine events fell agonizingly short in the giant slalom, losing gold to Canada's Kathy Kreiner by just 0.12 seconds and settling for silver. She capped her breakthrough season by winning the 1976 overall World Cup title, the first German to do so, then retired at 25 at the very peak of her sport. She married fellow Olympic skier Christian Neureuther, and their son Felix became a three-time World Championship slalom medalist; Rosi Mittermaier died on 4 January 2023 at age 72 after a long illness.
Winning a stunning double Olympic gold at 1976 Innsbruck and narrowly missing an unprecedented clean sweep of all three Alpine events
How They Played
Determined all-round racer who transformed from a moderate World Cup competitor into an Olympic champion through renewed focus late in her career
Lasting Impact
Remembered as one of West Germany's most beloved sporting heroes, whose late-career breakthrough produced one of the great Olympic stories of the 1970s
Career Honours
- 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, 1976 (Downhill, Slalom)
- 1976 Overall World Cup Champion (first German to do so)
- Only woman to win both downhill and slalom Olympic titles
- German Sports Hall of Fame (2006)
German Athletes