Carole Merle
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "Template wrapper".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters". Carole Merle (Script error: No such module "IPA".; born 24 January 1964) is a former French Alpine skier. A specialist of Giant slalom and Super-G, she won 22 World Cup races, 6 World Cup season titles and 1 World Championship gold medal.[1]
Skiing career
A native of Template:Ill, a ski resort of Enchastrayes commune where her parents ran a hotel, Merle learned to ski at a very young age. She took part in her first competition as a six-year-old, and made her World Cup debut at 18. On 23 January 1983, she took her first World Cup podium with a third-place finish in giant slalom at St. Gervais. But it took another few years for her to reach her full potential.[2]
Her first World Cup win came on 6 January 1988 at Tignes. The following season saw her bag the World cup title in Super-G, finishing 4 points ahead of 1988 Olympic champion Sigrid Wolf. Merle went on to win the Super-G season title 4 years in a row (1989–1992), a feat only equalled in later years by Katja Seizinger of Germany (1993–1996) and Lindsey Vonn of the USA (2009–2012). In addition, Merle won the giant slalom World Cup in 1992 and 1993. These two same years, she finished 2nd (behind Austria's Petra Kronberger) and 3rd in the World Cup overall standings.[2]
At the 1989 World Championships in Vail she won a silver medal in the giant slalom, two years later at the 1991 World Championships in Saalbach she won another medal and at the 1993 World Championships in Morioka she finally won the gold medal in the giant slalom. At the 1992 Olympics in Albertville she won a silver medal in the Super-G event.[1]
Later life
Merle retired at the end of the 1994 ski season. During her career, she had earnings of more than 20 million French francs, which an uncle was managing on her behalf. In 1997, she made headlines when she publicly announced she had lost everything and had accumulated more than 70 million in debts, accusing her uncle of mismanaging her fortune.[3]
She later settled away from the ski slopes, in a Camargue farmhouse, to pursue her passion for horses. In a 2012 interview for French newspaper Le Dauphiné libéré, she claimed she had not skied for at least six years, but added she would never miss a ski World Cup on TV.[4]
World Cup results
Season standings
| Season | Age | Overall | Super-G | Giant slalom |
Downhill | Combine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 18 | 71 | - | 38 | - | 26 |
| 1983 | 19 | 38 | - | 14 | 31 | - |
| 1984 | 20 | 28 | - | 10 | - | 24 |
| 1985 | 21 | 58 | - | 27 | - | - |
| 1986 | 22 | 40 | 31 | 12 | 28 | - |
| 1987 | 23 | 60 | - | 23 | - | - |
| 1988 | 24 | 19 | - | 6 | 24 | - |
| 1989 | 25 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| 1990 | 26 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 10 | - |
| 1991 | 27 | 5 | 1 | 17 | 4 | - |
| 1992 | 28 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | - |
| 1993 | 29 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | - |
| 1994 | 30 | 20 | 24 | 8 | 53 | - |
Race victories
| Season | Date | Location | Race |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 6 January 1988 | Template:Flagicon Tignes, France | Giant slalom |
| 1989 | 26 November 1988 | Template:Flagicon Schladming, Austria | Super-G |
| 14 January 1989 | Template:Flagicon Grindelwald, Switzerland | Super-G | |
| 20 January 1989 | Template:Flagicon Tignes, France | Super-G | |
| 1990 | 10 February 1990 | Template:Flagicon Méribel, France | Super-G |
| 11 February 1990 | Super-G | ||
| 10 March 1990 | Template:Flagicon Stranda, Norway | Giant slalom | |
| 14 March 1990 | Template:Flagicon Klövsjö, Sweden | Giant slalom | |
| 16 March 1990 | Template:Flagicon Åre, Sweden | Super-G | |
| 1991 | 9 February 1991 | Template:Flagicon Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany | Super-G |
| 24 February 1991 | Template:Flagicon Furano, Japan | Super-G | |
| 1992 | 15 December 1991 | Template:Flagicon Santa Caterina, Italy | Super-G |
| 15 January 1992 | Template:Flagicon Hinterstoder, Austria | Giant slalom | |
| 20 January 1992 | Template:Flagicon Piancavallo, Italie | Giant slalom | |
| 27 January 1992 | Template:Flagicon Morzine, France | Giant slalom | |
| 15 March 1992 | Template:Flagicon Panorama, Canada | Super-G | |
| 19 March 1992 | Template:Flagicon Crans-Montana, Switzerland | Super-G | |
| 21 March 1992 | Giant slalom | ||
| 1993 | 5 January 1993 | Template:Flagicon Maribor, Slovenia | Giant slalom |
| 10 January 1993 | Template:Flagicon Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italie | Giant slalom | |
| 28 February 1993 | Template:Flagicon Veysonnaz, Switzerland | Super-G | |
| 27 March 1993 | Template:Flagicon Åre,Sweden | Giant slalom |
See also
References
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External links
Script error: No such module "Navbox". Template:Footer Giant Slalom World Cup Winners Women Template:Footer Super-G World Cup Winners Women
- Pages with script errors
- 1964 births
- Living people
- Sportspeople from Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
- Skiers from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- French female alpine skiers
- Olympic alpine skiers for France
- Olympic silver medalists for France
- Alpine skiers at the 1984 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiers at the 1988 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiers at the 1992 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics
- Olympic medalists in alpine skiing
- FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions
- Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics
- 20th-century French sportswomen