Gregor Schlierenzauer

He was one of the favorites for the tournament, but, due to variable weather conditions, arrived only in 42nd position in the first series and did not enter the second series.

Gregor Schlierenzauer (born 7 January 1990) is an Austrian former ski jumper who competed from 2006 to 2021.

He is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won the Ski Jumping World Cup overall title, the Four Hills Tournament, and Nordic Tournament twice each; the Ski Flying World Cup overall title three times; as well as four medals at the Winter Olympics, twelve at the Ski Jumping World Championships, and five at the Ski Flying World Championships.

Gregor Schlierenzauer was born on 7 January 1990 in Innsbruck, Tyrol, to Paul and Angelika Schlierenzauer.

The second of three children, he has an older sister, Gloria, and a younger brother, Lukas.

His uncle is Markus Prock, the winner of three Winter Olympic medals in men's luge, who settled him a contract with Fischer Skis in 2001 and a few years later with Red Bull.

Schlierenzauer has been deaf in his left ear since birth.

He is also the cousin of luger Hannah Prock.

At age eight, Schlierenzauer began training in ski jumping at SV Innsbruck–Bergisel club.

He attended an ordinary Austrian grammar school, however, due to tight schedules in both sport and school, he had problems keeping up with his class work.

Schlierenzauer then enrolled at Skigymnasium Stams in Austria, the world's oldest ski-sport training center and boarding secondary school.

He currently resides in Fulpmes, Tyrol.

Schlierenzauer began competing professionally in the 2005/06 season in the Continental Cup, then only fifteen years old.

In February 2006, he won the gold medal at the Junior World Championships in Kranj, Slovenia and then Alex Pointner, the coach of the Austrian professional team, called him to compete in the World Cup.

Schlierenzauer debuted in the World Cup finishing in 24th place at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival on 12 March 2006.

On 3 December 2006, Schlierenzauer took his first World Cup victory in Lillehammer, Norway, and became one of the youngest jumpers to ever win a world cup competition.

He also won in Oberstdorf, Germany, at the Four Hills Tournament 2006/07.

During the Four Hills Tournament, Finnish newspapers claimed that Schlierenzauer was extremely underweight, however, no evidence has ever been found to substantiate this accusation.

Schlierenzauer took fourth place in World Cup 2006/07.

He was second, but Adam Małysz from Poland ended up taking the first-place position from Anders Jacobsen, so Schlierenzauer finished third.

His coach deemed the event in Planica too demanding for 17-year-old Schlierenzauer, so he did not compete there and ended finishing fourth, behind Adam Małysz, Anders Jacobsen and Simon Ammann.

At the beginning of the World Cup 2007/08, Schlierenzauer took 2nd place on the World Cup list, behind his teammate Thomas Morgenstern.

He also took 2nd place in Oberstdorf, Germany, during the Four Hills Tournament 2007/08.

He won 1st place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

He took 8th place at the competition in Bischofshofen which was originally to be held in Innsbruck but was moved due to strong winds.

After consecutively winning the last four individual competitions of the season, Schlierenzauer ranked second overall in the 2007/08 World Cup, 233 points behind his teammate Thomas Morgenstern.

During his victorious 2008–09 World Cup season, Schlierenzauer set a number of ski jumping records, including surpassing Janne Ahonen's record of twelve individual World Cup wins in a season with thirteen; and also tying Ahonen, Matti Hautamäki, and Thomas Morgenstern's record of six consecutive individual wins in a single season.

On 25 January 2008, Schlierenzauer took his second World Cup victory in Zakopane, Poland.

He also skipped the competition in Sapporo, ruining his chance to take the first-place position from his Austrian teammate Thomas Morgenstern.

After two-second-place finishes in Liberec and an eighth-place finish in Willingen, he took part in the FIS Ski Flying World Championships in Oberstdorf in 2008.

After four series of competing, he won the gold medal, on 23 February 2008.

The next day, on 24 February, the Austrian team, composed of (Schlierenzauer-Thomas Morgenstern-Koch-Kofler) won gold in the team competition.

He also took part in the 2008 Nordic Tournament.

He took the second and fourth place at the two competitions in Kuopio and in Lahti which was moved to Kuopio because of bad weather). Winning at the competitions in Lillehammer and Oslo, he won the 2008 Nordic Tournament.

In March 2008, he improved the Austrian national record on flying hills to 233.5 meters, which was also the longest jump of Planica 2008 ski jumping events.

At the end of the Four Hills Tournament, he ended up in 12th place.

He skipped the competitions in Predazzo, where Tom Hilde from Norway took his first World Cup victory, and in Harrachov.

On 26 January 2013, Schlierenzauer equalled Matti Nykänen's long-standing record of 46 individual World Cup wins; he would go on to achieve a total of 53 wins, the most of any male ski jumper.

On 21 September 2021, he announced the end of his athletic career on his website.

He won the fourth competition, in Bischofshofen, Austria, on his 17th birthday, but finished the tournament in second place, behind Anders Jacobsen (Norway), and in front of Simon Ammann (Switzerland).