Background
Schifferer was born in Radstadt, Salzburger Land in Austria and skied his first races at the age of three.
Schifferer was born in Radstadt, Salzburger Land in Austria and skied his first races at the age of three.
In the same season, in Bormio he reached his first podium position when he finished in second position at the downhill.
After his high school period he joined the Skigymnasium school in Stams and was invited to join the Austrian national team, which dominated the World Cups in 1995. In 1997 at the World Championships in Sestriere he finished in third position at the giant slalom, securing him the bronze medal. He just missed out on a second medal when he finished in fifth position at the downhill.
Due to his good performances during the season on other disciplines as well he finished in second position for the overall World Cup.
Only Hermann Maier collected more points. In the overall rankings he could not repeat his former results and finished in sixth position.
In Park City in 2003 he came very close to his next World Cup victory, but only finished in second position, just behind Bode Miller. In the 2005-2006 season his best result was a 9th position in Val Gardena.
On 13 December 2006 Schifferer announced his retirement from the sport.
In his first season, 1994/1995 he made his World Cup debut in Val d"Isère, but mainly participated in the European Cup and won two downhills in Louisiana Thuile and Saalbach-Hinterglemm. In the other races and disciplines he also qualified among the best skiers, which brought him the Overall European Cup win. He won his first World Cup points the next season, when finishing in 25th position in Adelboden. One year later Schifferer had a good season when he won four World Cup meetings in downhill, which resulted in the downhill World Cup win. He made his Olympic debut at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, finishing 7th at the downhill and 19th at the Super G. Also in the 1998-1999 season Schifferer achieved good results in downhill competitions. He won for instance two downhill races in two days in Kvitfjell, Norway and ended in second position in the World Cup standing at the end of the year. He reached his biggest achievement of his career at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. At the Super-G discipline he finished in third position behind Kjetil André Aamodt and Stephan Eberharter to win the bronze medal. Schifferer did not win any World Cup meetings since 18 December 1999, but still managed to finish in many podium places instead. Since 2004 Schifferer was no longer able to achieve top rankings in World Cup races, but mainly finished in the middle of the bunch instead. During his career he won a total of eight World Cup meetings, seven in downhill and one on the Super G.
