Honorable Mention: Petra Vlhova: 216,000 Instagram followers: The Slovakian is the overall World Cup winner of the winter 2020/21 and just surpasses her male counterpart Alexis Pinturault from France on Instagram (206,000 followers). Still, she doesn't quite make the Instagram top ten by a razor-thin margin. In addition to the overall World Cup, the slalom and giant slalom specialist has also won World Cup gold in giant slalom once. Only at the Olympics is Vlhova still without a medal. But that could change in Beijing.
10 Kjetil Jansrud, 221.000 Instagram followers: For years, Kjetil Jansrud, together with Henrik Kristoffersen and Aksel Lund Svindal, was part of the Norwegian triumvirate among the world's top alpine skiers and won five Olympic medals, including one gold. But it just didn't work out yet for Jansrud to win the overall World Cup. In an interview, Jansrud announced that the 2021/22 season would probably be his last at the top level.
9 Tina Weirather: 222,000 Instagram followers. The Liechtensteiner has ended her career after 222 World Cup races at the beginning of 2020. However, at least in Switzerland she is still active in the ski circus: She accompanies the women's World Cup races on TV as an expert for SRF. Weirather's greatest successes as an active skier were Olympic bronze in the Super-G in 2018 and two small crystal globes for the Super-G World Cup.
8 Ted Ligety, 287,000 Instagram followers: The US American announced his career end at the beginning of 2021. But he remains popular on Instagram. No wonder: As a two-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion, Ligety looks back on an impressive career. Although it was never enough for the overall World Cup victory, he has won the giant slalom ranking five times.
7 Sofia Goggia, 341,000 Instagram followers: The rise of the Italians in recent years can be seen in the example of Sofia Goggia: The downhill specialist missed the 2014 Olympics due to a torn cruciate ligament. But 2018 was her year: downhill gold at the Olympics, overall victory in the downhill World Cup, and fourth place in the overall World Cup. She also won the downhill World Cup in the winter of 2020/21 despite a season ending injury early in January.
6 Anna Veith, 372,000 Instagram followers: Anna Veith became a winter sports star under her maiden name Anna Fenninger. Although the Austrian ended her career in 2020 after long-term knee problems, she continues to be the talk of the town with her commitment to animal welfare, among other things. In total, Veith won the overall World Cup twice, three World Cup titles and Olympic gold once.
5th Felix Neureuther, 449,000 Instagram followers: At least one German makes it into the top 10 alpine athletes with the most Instagram followers: Felix Neureuther remains the number one German winter sports figurehead even after his career ends in 2019. And fans of ex-biathlete Miriam Neureuther (formerly Gössner) also get insights into the lives of the winter sports couple on his account.
4. Aksel Lund Svindal, 507,000 Instagram followers:The 2007 and 2009 overall World Cup winner is as popular as ever even after his career ends in 2019, as his considerable Instagram following shows. No Norwegian (ex-)athlete has more Instagram followers than Svindal. Perhaps also because Svindal is still relevant in 2021, when the film "Aksel" was released, an impressive documentary about his successful career, which was also marked by serious falls.
3. Marcel Hirscher, 648,000 Instagram followers: The dominator of the men's World Cup from 2010 to 2019 is still the most sought-after man among alpine skiing fans on Instagram, even after the end of his career. Perhaps also because the Austrian continues to be active in sports with his Enduro - or because of his own new ski collection, which he has launched in autumn 2021.
2 Mikaela Shiffrin, 1 million Instagram followers: No active skier or skier from the ski circus unites as many fans behind her as Mikaela Shiffrin. The US American is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time world champion who keeps a low profile in public, but is omnipresent as the advertising face for global brands such as Oakley, Bose, Longines and Barilla. And: During the Corona pandemic she also convinced on Instagram with her guitar skills.
1 Lindsey Vonn, 2.1 million Instagram followers: Lindsey Vonn remains a phenomenon even after her career as an active skier ends in early 2019. However, the US American, whose 82 individual World Cup victories in her career are the second most in history behind the legendary Ingemar Stenmark (86), continues to be in demand even without skis. In 2020, for example, she hosted a show for Amazon Prime Video.
Does the sport of alpine skiing have a popularity problem? A look at the top ten most popular alpine ski stars on Instagram could certainly suggest that: No less than seven of the ten stars with the most followers have already ended their active careers. The reigning overall World Cup champions Alexis Pinturault and Petra Vlhova didn't even make it into the top ten - even if only just.
On the other hand, US-American Mikaela Shiffrin is now an Instagram millionaire - even if that's not nearly enough for the top of the Instagram ranking.
Curious: Swiss racer Lara Gut-Behrami, who at one point had more than 400,000 Instagram followers and would have easily made it into this ranking, deleted her social media profiles in order to be able to concentrate fully on sport and her private life.
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