Role
Coach, former Italian luge and bobsleigh racer, multiple Olympic medalist.
Bio
Gerda Weissensteiner is a coach and former top winter sports athlete. Taking to luge at a very young age, she built an extraordinary first international career, winning 13 World Cup stage victories, an individual world title (1993) and a team title (1989), two European titles, and an Olympic gold medal at Lillehammer 1994. She was also chosen as Italy's flag bearer at the 1998 Nagano Olympic Games.
After an initial period of activity as a coach in the junior sector, in 2001 she returned to competitions competing in the two-man bobsleigh as the first guide of the national team. With this second discipline she achieved victory in
World Cup in Calgary in 2003 and the bronze medal at the 2006 Turin Olympic Games, becoming one of the rare athletes in the world capable of achieving an Olympic podium in two different winter disciplines.
Awarded the title of Knight of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006 and the Golden Collar for Sporting Merit, she fully embodies Olympic values. From 2006 to 2025, she was part of the coaching staff of the Italian national luge team and was inducted into the FISI Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Italian Sports Walk of Fame in 2025.