Erika Hess facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Erika Hess

Alpine skier
Hess in February 1987
Disciplines	Technical events
Born	(1962-03-06) 6 March 1962 (age 62) Wolfenschiessen, Nidwalden, Switzerland
Height	1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
World Cup debut	1978
Retired	1987
Olympics
Teams	2
Medals	1
World Championships
Teams	4
Medals	6 (6 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	15
Wins	31
Podiums	76
Overall titles	2
Discipline titles	6
Medal record Women's alpine skiing Representing  Switzerland World Cup race podiums Event 1st 2nd 3rd Slalom 21 1 10 Giant slalom 6 9 5 Combined 4 7 3 International competitions Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 0 0 1 World Championships 6 0 0 Olympic Games Bronze 1980 Lake Placid Slalom World Championships Gold 1982 Schladming Slalom Gold 1982 Schladming Giant slalom Gold 1982 Schladming Combined Gold 1985 Bormio Combined Gold 1987 Crans Montana Slalom Gold 1987 Crans Montana Combined

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.

Biography

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.

World Cup results

Season titles

Season standings

Race victories

• 31 wins – (21 SL, 6 GS, 4 K)
• 76 podiums – (42 SL, 20 GS, 14 K)

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

World Championship results

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).

Olympic results

See also

In Spanish: Erika Hess para niños

• List of FIS Alpine Ski World Cup women's race winners