Michaela Dorfmeister - (March 25, 1973)...’00 World Cup GS champion (second overall); ’99 World Championships silver medalist in SL, bronze medalist in super G; ’98 Olympic super G silver medalist; 7 World Cup wins (five last season)...comes from Neusiedl, a non-mountain town about 25 miles outside Vienna...first recognized as a speed skier, she said before the Nagano Olympics, "I am a giant slalom skier first - that’s my true event" and last winter she proved it, winning four GS races and hitting the podium in four other giant slaloms...

Sabine Egger - (April 22, 1977)...’99 World Cup slalom champion; 2 World Cup victories...she’s from the village of St. Stefan (pop. 300), near the Slovenian border...a back injury kept her off skis for eight months in ’94...Egger collected her second World Cup win last season (Lienz, AUT), had two other thirds and was sixth in World Cup slalom points...

Renate Goetschl [GURT-chuhl] - (Aug. 6, 1975)...’00 World Cup overall (five wins, including three in SG) and super G champion (runnerup in downhill points); ’99 World Championships triple medalist - DH gold, silver in SG and combined; ’97 Worlds combined champion; 15 World Cup wins - in every event except giant slalom...break-out season a year ago for Goetschl, who had a great World Championships (three medals) in Vail in ’99 - where she led Austrians into the top four spots in DH...she started as a technical skier (silver medal in slalom at ’93 World Juniors and winner in the ’93 pre-Olympic SL in Hafjell, Norway after starting No. 42)...but then became a first-rate World Cup speed skier, including winning the ’97 World Cup DH crown...she won it again in ’99...very aggressive style to go with her all-round skills...

Brigitte Obermoser - (July 2, 1976)...Won her first World Cup race last season (GS in Bormio, two days after finishing third in Bormio SG)...farm girl from Altenmarkt, not far from Schladming...was ninth in her first World Cup (DH in St. Anton in ’96) but she’d like to be a four-event racer...

Tanja Schneider - (Feb. 19, 1974)...Coming off a breakthrough season - she was fourth in DH points (including a second in Cortina), sixth in super G points (including second in Altenmarkt, third on the ’76 Olympic course at Igls, outside Innsbruck)...before last season, Schneider’s best World Cup result had been seventh in super G in Maribor the previous season...