Thomas Sykora
Personal information
Born (1968-05-18) 18 May 1968
Tulln, Austria
OccupationAlpine skier
Skiing career
DisciplinesSlalom
World Cup debut30 November 1991
Olympics
Teams1
Medals1
World Championships
Teams3
World Cup
Wins9
Podiums21
Discipline titles2
Medal record
Men's alpine skiing
Representing  Austria
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1998 Nagano Slalom

Thomas Sykora (born 18 May 1968) is a former alpine skier from Austria.

Biography

Thomas comes from a sporting family: his father Ernst Sykora was a ski instructor, and his aunts Liese Prokop and Maria Sykora were both successful athletes. He competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics and the 1998 Winter Olympics, winning a bronze medal at the latter.[1]

Sykora won the 1996/97 and 1997/98 Slalom World Cups. Before winning these 2 World Cups, he finished second of the competition in 1994 in Lech. After finishing first in the first round, he eventually was beaten by Alberto Tomba by 2 hundredths of a second after the second round. In total, Thomas won nine World Cup races. At the Olympic Games 1998 in Nagano, he won the bronze medal in slalom. In 1996 and 1999 he also became Austrian slalom champion.

After numerous knee injuries, Thomas Sykora was forced to quit his career and became an ORF commentator. He started commenting on women's races in 2000. Later, he served as commentator in important men's slaloms (Kitzbühel, Schladming). On most of the races he comments, Thomas wears a helmet with a camera to show the spectators the different routes of the slalom, and their difficulties.

After the end of his active career as an athlete, he decided to study mental coaching in Bregenz; he then graduated with an MBA.

World Cup victories

Overall results

Season Discipline
1997Slalom[2]
1998Slalom[3]

Individual victories

Date Location Race
14 January 1996Austria KitzbühelSlalom
10 March 1996Norway HafjellSlalom
24 November 1996United States Park CitySlalom
17 December 1996Italy Madonna di CampiglioSlalom
6 January 1997Slovenia Kranjska GoraSlalom
12 January 1997France ChamonixSlalom
19 January 1997Switzerland WengenSlalom
4 January 1998Slovenia Kranjska GoraSlalom
26 January 1998Austria KitzbühelSlalom

References

  1. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Thomas Sykora". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "1997 World Cup Ski Standings (Slalom)". FIS-SKI.com. Federation Internationale de Ski. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012.
  3. ↑ "1998 World Cup Ski Standings (Slalom)". FIS-SKI.com. Federation Internationale de Ski. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012.
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