Marc Girardelli (born 18 July 1963) is an Austrian–Luxembourger former alpine ski racer, a five-time World Cup overall champion who excelled in all five alpine disciplines. Biography Born in Lustenau, Austria into a family originally from Valsugana, Italy, Girardelli started skiing at the age of five and was racing at seven. He enjoyed significant success at junior level, winning local competitions in not only alpine skiing but also ski jumping. He competed for Austria until 1976, then switched to Luxembourg due to disagreements about coaching – the Austrian skiing federation wanted Girardelli to attend a ski boarding school in Schruns, from Lustenau, while his parents preferred for him to stay in his hometown. In 1981, he started to make significant progress with his first podium (top-three finish) in Wengen, Switzerland, and from that moment was in contention for slalom and giant slalom podiums on a regular basis. He achieved his first World Cup victory in Sweden in February 1983, but incurred his first major injury two weeks later, tearing all the ligaments, cartilage, and a tendon in his left knee in a crash during a downhill at Lake Louise. In the following season, he won five slalom races and was third in the overall standings. In 1985, Girardelli won 11 races and the World Cup overall title, followed by another overall title in 1986 and a third in 1989. After another major accident in 1990, in which he narrowly avoided paraplegia, he recovered to win the overall again in 1991 and in 1993 for a record fifth time – a record until Marcel Hirscher won a sixth title in 2017 (Annemarie Moser-Pröll won six women's World Cups). In total, Girardelli won 46 World Cup races (fifth-most of all time among men) and recorded 100 podiums. Because Girardelli retained Austrian citizenship while skiing for Luxembourg, he was ineligible to compete in the 1980 or 1984 Winter Olympics - but also to compete in the 1982 World Championships. (In contrast, regulations did allow to start for Luxembourg in the World Cup). For a while, his appearance at the 1985 World Championships was in doubt, but he was able to show evidence that he was in the process of claiming Luxembourg citizenship. The FIS gave special permission, and he won a silver medal in the slalom and bronze in the giant slalom. Girardelli received Luxembourg citizenship in time to compete in the 1987