Hilde GERG

Hilde Gerg was the cousin of Annemarie Gerg. Hilde Gerg won the gold medal in the slalom at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and a bronze in the alpine combined. In her other appearances in 1994 at Lillehammer and 2002 at Salt Lake City, when she was the flag bearer of the German team at the Opening Ceremony, she won no medals but had good results with an eighth place in the 1994 combined and in 2002, a fourth in the downhill and fifth in Super-G. At the World Championships she won a gold medal with the team in its first appearance at this competition, adding three bronze medals in the Super-G in 1997 and 2001 and in the combined in 1997. In 1997 she was also German champion in the Super-G and in 2005 in the downhill. Gerg won 20 World Cup races, adding 17 runner-ups and 23 third places. In 1999, she was runner-up in the overall World Cup, while she won the overall Super-G World Cup in 1997 and 2002, the overall combined World Cup in 1998 and 1999, and was runner-up in the overall downhill World Cup in 2004 and 2005. She retired after the season 2005.

Since 2006 Hilde Gerg worked as a color commentator at World Cup races for the German TV channel ZDF. She was married to Wolfgang Graßl, who was also an alpine skier and later coach of the German national team. They had two children and ran holiday apartments in their hometown of Lenggries. In April 2010 Graßl tragically died due to heart failure. At a 2001 New Year’s celebration her other cousin Josef Gerg also died tragically when fireworks exploded in front of him.