Background
Girardelli was born in Lustenau, Austria, started skiing at the age of five, and started racing at seven.
Girardelli was born in Lustenau, Austria, started skiing at the age of five, and started racing at seven.
He enjoyed significant success at junior level, winning local competitions in not only alpine skiing but also ski jumping. 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. This was followed by another World Cup in 1986 and a third in 1989.
Because Girardelli retained Austrian citizenship while skiing for Luxembourg, he was ineligible to compete in the 1980 or 1984 Winter Olympics.
His final World Cup race was in December 1996. He retired from international competition at age 33.
Girardelli is a honorary citizen of Bulgarian ski resort Bansko. Since 2015, he has been serving as an advisor to the Minister of Tourism of Bulgaria, Nikolina Angelkova, on the matters of winter tourism.
Season standings
no season title awarded in combined in 1991, only one race completed
Season titles
Individual race victories
46 total (3 downhill, 9 super G, 7 giant slalom, 16 slalom, 11 combined)
1 now Slovenia2 now Bosnia and Herzegovina.