Career

Born in Straubing, West Germany, Wenzel moved to Liechtenstein at an early age. After winning the World Cup overall title in 1978, Wenzel"s best year came in 1980. Wenzel was banned from the 1984 Winter Olympics by the International Ski Federation (FIS) for accepting promotional payments directly, rather than through the national ski federation.

Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden was also banned.

Both were double gold medalists in 1980. Wenzel retired following the 1984 season with two Olympic titles, four World titles, two overall World Cups, three discipline World Cups plus three combined titles, and 33 World Cup victories.

(Through 1980, the Olympics were also the World Championships)

Season standings

Season titles

7 titles – (2 overall, 2 giant slalom, 1 slalom, 2 combined)

Individual races

33 wins

89 podiums

Wenzel and Weirather run their own sports marketing agency. Their daughter Tina Weirather is also an Olympic alpine skier.

Achievements

• She won the country"s first Olympic medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. After she and her younger brother Andreas had success in ski racing – Hanni won the gold medal in slalom and silver in the combined at the 1974 World Championships – the family was granted Liechtenstein citizenship. At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, she won the country"s first Olympic medal, a bronze in the slalom at Axamer Lizum, and also picked up another world championship medal in the combined. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, she won gold medals in the slalom and giant slalom, and just missed out on a sweep by taking the silver in the downhill at Whiteface Mountain. She also easily won the world championship gold medal in the combined event, its final edition as a "paper race" and her fourth world championship medal in that event. At the same Olympics, her brother also won a silver medal, placing Liechtenstein high in the medal ranking of the games. In addition to her Olympic success, she won nine World Cup races in 1980 and captured the overall, giant slalom, and combined season titles, and brother Andreas won the men"s overall for a Wenzel family sweep of the overall titles. Through the 2014 Winter Olympics, Liechtenstein has won a total of nine medals at the Winter Olympics, with eight won by two sets of siblings – the Wenzels earned six, while brothers Willi and Paul Frommelt are responsible for two more. Wenzel is a sister of Olympic alpine skiers Petra Wenzel and Andreas Wenzel, and the wife of Austrian ski racer Harti Weirather, the 1982 world champion in downhill.