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Thomas Sykora (born 18 May 1968) is a former alpine skier from Austria.
Biography
Thomas comes from a sporting family: his father Ernst Sykora was a ski instructor, and his aunts Liese Prokop and Maria Sykora were both successful athletes. He competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics and the 1998 Winter Olympics, winning a bronze medal at the latter.
Sykora won the 1996/97 and 1997/98 Slalom World Cups. Before winning these 2 World Cups, he finished second of the competition in 1994 inLech. After finishing first in the first round, he eventually was beaten by Alberto Tomba by 2 hundredths of a second after the second round. In total, Thomas won nine World Cup races. At theOlympic Games 1998 in Nagano, he won the bronze medal in slalom. In 1996 and 1999 he also became Austrian slalom champion.
After numerous knee injuries, Thomas Sykora was forced to quit his career and became anORF commentator. He started commenting on women's races in 2000. Later, he served as commentator in important men's slaloms (Kitzbühel, Schladming). On most of the races he comments, Thomas wears a helmet with a camera to show the spectators the different routes of the slalom, and their difficulties.
After the end of his active career as an athlete, he decided to study mental coaching in Bregenz; he then graduated with an MBA.
World Cup victories
Overall results
| Season | Discipline |
|---|---|
| 1997 | Slalom |
| 1998 | Slalom |
Individual victories
| Date | Location | Race |
|---|---|---|
| 14 January 1996 | Kitzbühel | Slalom |
| 10 March 1996 | Hafjell | Slalom |
| 24 November 1996 | Park City | Slalom |
| 17 December 1996 | Madonna di Campiglio | Slalom |
| 6 January 1997 | Kranjska Gora | Slalom |
| 12 January 1997 | Chamonix | Slalom |
| 19 January 1997 | Wengen | Slalom |
| 4 January 1998 | Kranjska Gora | Slalom |
| 26 January 1998 | Kitzbühel | Slalom |