Erika Hess
Swiss alpine skier (born 1962)
Erika Hess (born 6 March 1962) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the best female racers of the 1980s, Hess had 31 World Cup wins (22 in slalom), four slalom titles (1981, 83 and 1985), and two overall titles (1982, 1984). She also won six World Championship gold medals between 1982 and 1987, and took bronze in the slalom at the 1980 Winter Olympics at age 17. Hess missed another medal in 1985, when she led after the first run of the slalom at the "Stelvio" course at Bormio, but failed to finish the second leg.
01Biography
Born in Wolfenschiessen, Nidwalden, Hess' first World Cup start was at age fifteen in Berchtesgaden, West Germany, on January 25, 1978, and her first podium was on December 6, 1979, at Val-d'Isère, France. She retired at age 25 following the 1987 season with 31 World Cup victories, 76 podiums, and 146 top tens in 165 starts. She won six World Cup Slalom Races in a row from January to the season finish in March 1981.
Hess was awarded with the »Skieur d’Or« (»The ski racer in gold«, later named "Serge Lang Trophy" - named after Serge Lang - an award given by "The Association Internationale des Journalistes de Ski", an international Consortium of journalists competent for ski sports) on November 22, 1982 (5 points ahead to Phil Mahre). She tied for the slalom title in 1986, but was runner-up to Roswitha Steiner due to the tiebreaker: Steiner had four slalom wins and Hess had two.
Her cousin Monika Hess (b. 1964) also was an alpine ski racer.
She explained her retirement in an article in the newspaper Sport that an important reason for her career end before Calgary 1988 was the factors given at the Olympic Games such as weather, hustle and bustle, nervous pressure, which weigh many times more heavily at the Olympics than at a normal race. She had not been able to cope with these circumstances.
Hess married Jacques Reymond (her trainer); the couple and three sons were living at Saint-Légier-La Chiésaz in Vaud at the time of Reymond's death in May 2020 (due to COVID-19).
Erika is organizing races and training camps for upcoming ski racers.
02World Cup results
Season titles
| Season | Discipline |
|---|---|
| 1981 | Slalom |
| 1982 | Overall |
| Slalom | |
| 1983 | Slalom |
| 1984 | Overall |
| Giant slalom | |
| Combined | |
| 1985 | Slalom |
Season standings
| Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 15 | 28 | 16 | 21 | not run | , | , |
| 1979 | 16 | 15 | 18 | 10 | , | , | |
| 1980 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 5 | , | , | |
| 1981 | 18 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 34 | 4 | |
| 1982 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 35 | 2 | |
| 1983 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 4 | not awarded (w/ GS) | , | 4 |
| 1984 | 21 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 35 | 1 | |
| 1985 | 22 | 4 | 1 | 12 | , | 5 | |
| 1986 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 20 | 25 | 2 |
| 1987 | 24 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 18 | 32 | 3 |
Race victories
| Season | Date | Location | Race |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 13 January 1981 | Schruns, Austria | Slalom |
| 21 January 1981 | Crans-Montana, Switzerland | Slalom | |
| 31 January 1981 | Les Diablerets, Switzerland | Slalom | |
| 3 February 1981 | Zwiesel, West Germany | Slalom | |
| 15 March 1981 | Furano, Japan | Slalom | |
| 24 March 1981 | Wangs, Pizol, Switzerland | Slalom | |
| 25 March 1981 | Giant slalom | ||
| 1982 | 13 December 1981 | Piancavallo, Italy | Slalom |
| 21 December 1981 | St. Gervais, France | Slalom | |
| 3 January 1982 | Maribor, Yugoslavia | Slalom | |
| 20 January 1982 | Bad Gastein, Austria | Slalom | |
| Combined | |||
| 1982 World Championships | |||
| 20 March 1982 | L'Alpe d'Huez, France | Giant slalom | |
| 21 March 1982 | Slalom | ||
| 1983 | 8 December 1982 | Val-d'Isère, France | Giant slalom |
| 17 December 1982 | Piancavallo, Italy | Slalom | |
| 9 February 1983 | Maribor, Yugoslavia | Slalom | |
| 1984 | 1 December 1983 | Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia | Slalom |
| 11 December 1983 | Val-d'Isère, France | Giant slalom | |
| 14 December 1983 | Sestriere, Italy | Combined | |
| 15 January 1984 | Maribor, Yugoslavia | Slalom | |
| 22 January 1984 | Verbier, Switzerland | Combined | |
| 29 January 1984 | St. Gervais, France | Giant slalom | |
| 17 March 1984 | Jasná, Czechoslovakia | Giant slalom | |
| 1985 | 19 March 1985 | Park City, UT, USA | Slalom |
| 1985 World Championships | |||
| 22 March 1985 | Heavenly Valley, CA, USA | Slalom | |
| 1986 | 12 December 1985 | Sestriere, Italy | Combined |
| 15 December 1985 | Savognin, Switzerland | Slalom | |
| 11 March 1986 | Park City, UT, USA | Slalom | |
| 1987 | 5 December 1986 | Waterville Valley, NH, USA | Slalom |
| 21 December 1986 | Val Zoldana, Italy | Slalom | |
| 1987 World Championships | |||
03World Championship results
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 15 | , | 9 | not run | , | , |
| 1980 | 17 | 3 | DNF2 | , | , | |
| 1982 | 19 | 1 | 1 | , | 1 | |
| 1985 | 22 | DNF2 | 11 | , | 1 | |
| 1987 | 24 | 1 | , | , | 7 | 1 |
From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the World Championships for alpine skiing.
At the World Championships from 1954 through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).
04Olympic results
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Erika Hess”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- K01-M2-0046.tif by Scanprojekt Schalchham, CC BY-SA 4.0
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