Day of sport - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2006 - 55 Euro Cent

As fast as on skis, he is also in collecting sporting successes: In just 13 months Benjamin Raich was not only double world champion and double Olympic champion, but also overall World Cup triumph. The "Blitz aus Pitz" reached in rapid speed, which so far only a single Austrian succeeded, namely Hermann Maier in 1998. Overall, the 28-year-old Pitztaler already conquered six World Cup and four Olympic medals. His secret of success: an enormous training effort and the ability to keep cool in crucial situations. How quickly Raich stuck his mistake in the Olympic combination in Sestriere and a few days later won gold in giant slalom and slalom, confirmed impressively: The mental strength of sympathetic Tyrolean is hard to beat. Behind the change from a technician to an all-rounder is the new training program that the ÖSV has developed in recent years especially for overall World Cup contenders - and since the spring of 2003 to set up a new training group with the abbreviation "WC 4 - World Cup 4 disciplines" led. Since then, Raich has increasingly been training the speed disciplines Downhill and Super G and is also collecting valuable World Cup points in these competitions. The star of Benjamin Raich came on in 1996, when the then 18-year-old became junior world champion in slalom for the first time. Since his childhood, Benni Raich, born on 28 February 1978 in Arzl in the Tyrolean Pitztal, trained by his father Luis, who also runs the family-owned ski racing school "Race Center Pitztal". The positive family background forms the basis of his successes: "My family is my support, without the support of parents and my siblings I could not concentrate on skiing," says Raich proudly. He finds peace on his parents' farm - there he also gets the strength for the stress during the racing season. His hobbies are nature, tennis, climbing and bungy jumping - the bridge at Arzl with a height of 94 m is ideal for this. Quite clear: As a sports star, he is always in the media center - although: His thing is not. He himself describes his qualities like: honesty, determination and satisfaction. "It is important that you are ready to perform, and that you like to do what you are doing. Then success comes naturally, I am convinced of that, "says Benni Raich modestly.