Gregor "Schlieri" Schlierenzauer (born January 7 1990 in Innsbruck) is an Austrian ski jumper. The next big Austrian hope began his senior career in 2005/06 with one win and three additional podiums in the Ski jumping Grand Prix.

Gregor was born to Angelika and Paul Schlierenzauer. He's got elder sister Gloria and younger brother Lucas.

Gregor won the Junior World Championship in Kranj, Slovenia, in February 2006. Schlierenzauer debuted in the World Cup with a 24th place at the Holmenkollen ski festival on March 12 2006. During the next season, he took his first World Cup victory on December 3, 2006 in Lillehammer. During the 2006-07 Four Hills Tournament, Finnish newspapers claimed that Gregor was extremely underweight, however no evidence has been found that this was true. Despite the criticism, he finished second behind Anders Jacobsen in the tournament.

Schlierenzauer lives in Fulpmes, Tyrol, Austria and attends Skigymnasium in Stams, where he will be graduating from economics school in 2008. Before he changed to Skigymnasium, he attended an ordinary Austrian grammar school, however due to tide schedules in both sport and school, had problems to keep up with class work. After changing to Skigymnasium Stams he managed to improve his grades up to a grade point average of 1.4. His manager is his uncle Markus Prock, who won three Winter Olympic medals himself in men's luge. It was Prock who managed to get a sponsoring contract with Redbull in 2006.

Entering the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 in Sapporo, Schlierenzauer was ranked second behind Norway's Anders Jacobsen in the Ski jumping World Cup standings. He won his first gold medal at the 2007 championships in the team large hill event despite having the weakest two jumps for the team. Schlierenzauer won the ski jumping event at the 2008 Holmenkollen ski festival.

Career highlights

2008 - Oberstdorf, 1st, individual

2008 - Oberstdorf, 1st, team (with Koch / Kofler / Morgenstern)World Ski Championships

2007 - Sapporo, 1st, team large hill (with Loitzl / Kofler / Morgenstern)

2007 - Sapporo, 8th, normal hill

2007 - Sapporo, 10th, large hillWorld Junior Championships

2006 - Kranj, 1st, normal hillWorld Cup

2006 - Lillehammer, 1st, large hill

2006 - Engelberg (1), 1st, large hill

2006 - Engelberg (2), 3rd, large hill

2006 - Oberstdorf, 1st, large hill

2007 - Bischofshofen, 1st, large hill

2007 - Titisee-Neustadt, 2nd, large hill

2007 - Klingenthal, 1st, large hill

2007 - Willingen, 1st, team large hill (with Loitzl / Kofler / Pauli)

2007 - Lahti, 1st, team large hill (with Höllwarth / Kofler / Morgenstern)

2007 - Kuusamo, 2nd, team large hill (with Loitzl / Koch / Morgenstern)

2007 - Trondheim, 2nd, large hill

2007 - Villach (1), 3rd, normal hill

2007 - Villach (2), 2nd, normal hill

2007 - Engelberg, 2nd, large hill

2007 - Oberstdorf, 2nd, large hill

2008 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1st, large hill

2008 - Zakopane, 1st, large hill

2008 - Liberec (1), 2nd, large hill

2008 - Liberec (2), 2nd, large hillWorld Grand Prix

2006 - Hinterzarten, 1st, team normal hill (with Loitzl / Fettner / Kofler)

2006 - Hinterzarten, 3rd, normal hill

2006 - Einsiedeln, 2nd, large hill

2006 - Courchevel, 1st, large hill

2006 - Zakopane, 2nd, large hill

2007 - Hinterzarten, 1st, team normal hill (with Loitzl / Morgenstern / Kofler)

2007 - Hinterzarten, 3rd, normal hill

2007 - Pragelato, 1st, large hill

2007 - Klingenthal, 1st, large hillContinental Cup

2006 - Villach, 1st, normal hillFIS Cup

2006 - Seefeld, 2nd, normal hill

2006 - Zao, 2nd, normal hill

2006 - Sapporo, 1st, normal hill

2006 - Sapporo, 2nd, large hillFIS Races

2005 - Predazzo (1), 1st, normal hill

2005 - Predazzo (2), 2nd, normal hill

Trivia

• Gregor Schlierenzauer became the 5th individual to win a Ski jumping World Cup-competition at the age of 16, or younger, after his win in Lysgårdsbakkene on December 2 2006. The four others are Steve Collins (15), Toni Nieminen (16), Primož Peterka (16) and Thomas Morgenstern (16).
• Schlierenzauer is deaf from birth in the left ear. He took his first win in the Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf at age 16.

References

• Official site
• unofficial Finnish fansite
• Unofficial Polish Fansite
• Unofficial Finnish fansite
• All results and ranking in world Cup