Double Olympic champion Rosi Mittermaier dies aged 72

Double Olympic alpine skiing champion Rosi Mittermaier has died at the age 72.

The Mittermaier family released a statement to news agency SID saying she "passed away peacefully with her family after a serious illness".

Mittermaier earned the nickname 'Gold-Rosi' after her downhill and slalom golds at the Innsbruck 1976 Olympic Winter Games. She then took giant slalom silver.

After 10 World Cup wins, she retired aged 25 at the end of the 1975/76 season.

She and husband Christian Neureuther were something of a celebrity couple in German ski racing, and had two children including three-time world slalom medallist Felix Neureuther.

IOC President Thomas Bach led the tributes, saying, "Rosi Mittermaier was a very charming and credible ambassador of sport, who always approached people openly and in a humble way. She inspired all of us with her warmth and her smile. For all these reasons, and not only because of her two Olympic gold medals, she will always be remembered as 'Gold-Rosi' by all of us.

"Personally, it was a great pleasure for me to experience her warmth and her natural dedication to sport since we got to know each other in 1976. Therefore, I very much appreciated the cooperation with her as a founding personal member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). My thoughts are with her family, who was everything to her, and to whom I send my deepest condolences."

Fellow German ski racer Markus Wasmeier, double Olympic champion at Lillehammer 1994, told SID: “We have lost a fantastic person. Rosi had a heart as big as a bus, she was always there for everyone - that was unique. You won't find someone like that again, she leaves a huge gap."