Carlo Senoner (born 24 October 1943) is a retired Italian alpine skier who won the gold medal in the slalom event at the 1966 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Portillo, Chile, becoming the first official Italian world champion in that discipline.
Biography
Senoner was born in Selva di Val Gardena, Italy, into a family of skiers. His father, Tobia Senoner, and his sister, Inge Senoner, were also Olympic alpine skiers. He was the second youngest in a family of twelve children.
He won the national junior giant slalom title in 1958 and the European junior giant slalom championship in 1959.
Olympic Career
Senoner competed in the slalom events at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley and the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble. At the 1960 Games, he was the youngest Italian competitor and finished 13th in the slalom and 17th in the giant slalom. In 1968, he placed 13th in the slalom.
World Championships
At the 1962 FIS Alpine World Championships, Senoner finished sixth in the slalom and fourth in the Alpine combined.
His greatest achievement came at the 1966 World Championships in Portillo, Chile. After finishing 20th in the downhill, he won the gold medal in the slalom. He was fourth after the first run (53.72 seconds, 2.39 seconds behind leader Bengt-Erik Grahn). In the second run, he posted the second-fastest time (47.84 seconds, just 0.14 seconds behind Louis Jauffret), which was enough to secure the victory by a margin of 0.69 seconds over Guy Périllat. This made him the first Italian male skier to win a World Championship gold medal.
Personal Life
Senoner is the owner of the Hotel Portillo Dolomites in Wolkenstein (Selva di Val Gardena), named after the location of his 1966 world title victory.
