 From Abtenau, Salzburg, her father, Hans Meissnitzer, a mechanic by trade, taught her to ski at an early age.At the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano, Meissnitzer won the silver in the giant-slalom and the bronze in the super-G, and at the 2006 Winter Olympics at Turin she won the bronze in the super-G.In 1999, she won the overall World Cup, to which she added the super-G and giant slalom World Cups for the same season.