Maria Helena Pietilä-Holmner (born 25 July 1986) is a retired Swedish World Cup alpine ski racer. She specialised in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Born in Umeå, Pietilä-Holmner took up alpine skiing at the age of seven. She was also a keen footballer, playing as a forward for Mariehem's girls' teams until the age of 15, when she decided to focus on skiing. Pietilä-Holmner made her World Cup debut in Sölden at age 16 in October 2002. She won a gold medal at the 2006 World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships in the slalom. Her first World Cup win came at a slalom in Aspen in November 2010. She made a total of 207 World Cup starts, and took ten podiums, including three wins.
Pietilä-Holmner took five medals in the World Championships, two as an individual and three in the team events. She was the silver medalist in giant slalom in 2007 at Åre, Sweden. Four years later in 2011, she won 2 bronze medals at Garmish-Partenkirchen in the slalom and the team event. At Schladming in 2013, she won a silver in the team event. She took her final Worlds medal at the 2017 Championships, where she was part of the Swedish squad which finished third in the team event.
She made her debut at the Winter Olympics in 2006, where she finished tenth in the giant slalom. At the 2010 Winter Games, she finished fourth in the slalom, and at the 2014 Winter Olympics she was sixth in the giant slalom. She also won seven Swedish championship titles: five in slalom, one in giant slalom and one in combined.
On 17 January 2018, she announced her retirement from alpine skiing, following back problems. to instead become a Eurosport expert commentator.
She has been in a relationship with fellow alpine skier Hans Olsson since 2004: as of 2018 the couple were engaged. They both worked as part of the team covering alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics for Eurosport.
World Cup results Season standings Season Age Overall Slalom Giantslalom Super-G Downhill Combined 2004 17 104 — 43 — — — 2005 18 63 33 31 — — — 2006 19 24 17 20 — — — 2007 20 26 15 14 — — — 2008 21 29 12 12 — — — 2009 22 13 7 7 54 — — 2010 23 13 8 6 — — — 2011 24 11 4 19 — — 32 2012 25 33 14 29 — — — 2013 26 17 7 27 — — — 2014 27 7 4 3 — — — 2015 28 15 7 16 — — —2016 29 19 9 8 — — —2017 30 65 23 33 — — —2018 31 did not compete; retired in the middle of season
Race podiums 3 wins – (2 SL, 1 CE) 10 podiums – (7 SL, 1 GS, 2 PSL) SeasonDateLocationDisciplinePlace200915 November 2008 Levi, Finland Slalom 2nd201128 November 2010 Aspen, USA Slalom 1st2 January 2011 Munich, Germany City event 1st201227 November 2011 Aspen, USA Slalom 2nd 201422 December 2013 Val-d'Isère, France Giant slalom 3rd5 January 2014 Bormio, Italy Slalom 2nd14 January 2014 Flachau, Austria Slalom 3rd8 March 2014 Åre, Sweden Slalom 2nd201513 December 2014 Slalom 1st201623 February 2016 Stockholm, Sweden City event 3rd
World Championship results Year Age Slalom Giant slalom Super-G Downhill Combined 2005 18 13 16 — — — 2007 20 11 2 — — — 2009 22 DNF1 8 — — — 2011 24 3 22 — — — 2013 26 6 18 — — — 2015 28 14 9 — — — 2017 30 14 25 — — —
Olympic results Year Age Slalom Giant slalom Super-G Downhill Combined 2006 19 21 10 — — — 2010 23 4 24 — — — 2014 27 DNF1 6 — — —
Video Zapiks – post-race interview in November 2011 – 2nd place, Aspen slalom
References
External links
Maria Pietilae-Holmner World Cup standings at the International Ski Federation
Swedish Olympic Committee – Maria Pietilä Holmner – Rossignol.com – Maria Pietilä-Holmner – alpine skiing – Sweden –