Rosi Mittermaier, who won two golds and a silver in Alpine skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics, died Wednesday at age 72, according to the German ski federation.
Mittermaier died peacefully and was surrounded by family after a serious illness, according to German Press Agency DPA, citing a family announcement.
Mittermaier, nicknamed “Gold-Rosi,” won the downhill and slalom at the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Games while competing for West Germany. She remains the only woman to win Olympic titles in both of those events.
She went into the closing giant slalom with a chance to match the triple gold feats of Austrian Toni Sailer and Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy at previous Olympics. Canadian Kathy Kreiner denied it, relegating Mittermaier to silver by 12 hundredths of a second in a one-run race.
She married fellow German Olympic Alpine skier Christian Neureuther. They had two kids, including son Felix, a three-time world championships slalom medalist in the 2010s.
Mittermaier’s sisters Evi and Heidi were also Olympic Alpine skiers.
