Everyone just called her “Gold-Rosi”, actually everyone loved her. Because she was a human soul with a big heart. Now Rosi Mittermaier left much too early. The ski legend died on Wednesday after a serious illness “with the family” in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, she “fell asleep peacefully,” the family said. Mittermaier was 72 years old.
February 8, 1976, Olympic Games in Innsbruck – nothing was the same after that. Rosa Katharina Mittermaier, hotel assistant from Reit im Winkl, became “Gold-Rosi”. She danced Rumba on the podium, Germany danced with her. Gold in the downhill was followed three days later by gold in the slalom, and she also won silver in the giant slalom. The land was at her feet.
Mittermaier, Neureuther married since 1980, the hype was too much. Also because of the immense hustle and bustle, she resigned at the end of the season at the age of 25. “When I think today that I endured it all, I can’t imagine it anymore,” she once said: “I can get through a lot, but that was awesome.”
Mittermaier remained approachable, modest, she always had a nice word on her lips. The fact that she remained the nation’s “Golden Rosi” for decades had a lot to do with the fact that she was always the way she was. Friendly. Helpful. Socially engaged. And: she washed the underpants of the competitors of her son Felix Neureuther, who also became a skier.
“We lost a fantastic person. Rosi had a heart as big as a bus, she was always there for everyone – that was unique,” said Markus Wasmeier, double Olympic champion from 1994 and a friend of the family, the sports information service: “One of those You don’t find people again, she leaves a huge gap.”
Mittermaier could also get grumpy. “Injustice,” she once said, she couldn’t stand at all. She called doping “fraud”, against which she would have taken “very strict” action. But that didn’t happen in her eyes, which is why she was “very disappointed” with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Mittermaier has also driven car races
Otherwise, of course, Rosi Mittermaier was at peace. She took life as it came. Even if there were small incidents like breaking the left wrist. After that, she just did everything with her right hand, carried her three grandchildren in her arms, “even cleaned the windows” until her biceps tendon tore. She laughed at such mishaps.
Rosi Mittermaier was able to enjoy her life, she saw it as fulfilled, “I’ve done everything, tried everything”: paragliding, skydiving, diving, surfing in Hawaii; She raced cars and motorbikes. “I’m not planning anything,” she once said.
Mittermaier knew that she didn’t have much time left, she had made her peace and her loved ones around her in the last few hours.