11 Facts About Erika Hess

Erika Hess was born on 6 March 1962 and is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland.

One of the best female racers of the 1980s, Hess had 31 World Cup wins, four slalom titles, and two overall titles.

Erika Hess won six World Championship gold medals between 1982 and 1987, and took bronze in the slalom at the 1980 Winter Olympics at age 17.

Erika Hess missed another medal in 1985, when she led after the first run of the slalom at the "Stelvio" course at Bormio, but failed to finish the second leg.

Erika Hess retired at age 25 following the 1987 season with 31 World Cup victories, 76 podiums, and 146 top tens in 165 starts.

Erika Hess won six World Cup Slalom Races in a row from January to the season finish in March 1981.

Erika Hess tied for the slalom title in 1986, but was runner-up to Roswitha Steiner due to the tiebreaker: Steiner had four slalom wins and Hess had two.

Erika Hess explained her retirement in an article in the newspaper Sport that an important reason for her career end before Calgary 1988 was the factors given at the Olympic Games such as weather, hustle and bustle, nervous pressure, which weigh many times more heavily at the Olympics than at a normal race.

Erika Hess had not been able to cope with these circumstances.

Erika Hess married Jacques Reymond ; the couple and three sons were living at Saint-Legier-La Chiesaz in Vaud at the time of Reymond's death in May 2020.

Erika Hess is organizing races and training camps for upcoming ski racers.