Marlies Schild was the dominant force in women's slalom having dominated the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons and taking home the World Cup Globe on both occasions. The Austrian's biggest satisfaction came in the 2007 season when she gave her opponents no chance by winning seven of the nine races available consolidating her position as one of the best all time Slalom skiers.

Born in Saalfelden, Austria, on May 31st 1985 Schild attended the ski gymnasium in Stams and was more interested in the speed disciplines in her early career but soon had forfeit these for the more technical disciplines due to problems with her knees, having undergone surgery on more than one occasion.

Her passage to the SL and GS was a slow and very progressive process and her natural talent for the slalom, which in time she would come to dominate, took some time to mature in terms of results and confidence. Initially there some doubt about her mental toughness as she was considered to be too insecure about her capabilities.

After competing at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, where she failed to finish the slalom, the often shy Austrian came to prominence in the World Cup in the 2003 season when she posted a third place finish at Aspen in the slalom event behind the two leading legends of the moment, Janica Kostelic and Anja Paerson. She followed that up with a silver medal at the World Championships in St Moritz that same year and managed a further six top 10 finishes in World Cup. She was the fifth highest ranked slalom skier at the end of the year and it only just got better and better thereafter.

For the following season Marlies continued to concentrate only on the two technical disciplines and after managing four podium finishes throughout the winter she finally managed to nail down a victory in the last slalom of the season at the finals of Sestriere. She finished second in the standings behind an unstoppable Anja Paerson.

In the 2005 season the then 23-year-old began to compete in the SuperG and Downhill once again as well as perfecting her slalom technique. She managed three victories throughout the season and also managed a third place in the SuperG of Lenzerheide, confirming her all round ability. Her third place in the slalom standings was followed up by another second place finish the year after behind Janica Kostelic in what was to be her final year on the tour.

That summer she began dating fellow competitor Benjamin Raich and formed what would turn out to be one of the most impressive skiing partnerships in modern times. Certainly the relationship gave Schild a new found confidence and determination previously unseen.

Kostelic's retirement from competitive skiing left a void in slalom which was quickly filled by a fully mature Schild. Now known for her grit and tendency to not to take losing too well the 2006/07 season proved to be her most rewarding and disappointing winter to date. It was the year that saw her crowned Slalom World Champion for the first time but ironically it was also the year she lost the Overall title to Nicole Hosp, who from that day on would become her biggest rival.

Schild had been leading the overall standings all season but going into the final at Lenzerheide the momentum had begun to swing in Hosp's favour. Schild held a 15 point advantage and in what was one of the most closely contested battles of recent years the fight for the biggest globe of them all went right down to the wire. A surprisingly excellent second place in the first event of the finals, the DH put Schild in command once again as did a third place finish in the SuperG, her two weaker disciplines, but then disaster struck in her beloved Slalom where she finished down in 19th place with Hosp winning. The pressure of the last race proved to be too much for the elder of the two Austrians and although a sixth place finish was more than satisfactory, Hosp won that race and took home the coveted big Crystal Globe.

After that disappointment Schild had to re-evaluate her goals and decided to make the slalom title her priority again for the 2008 season and although she didn't dominate the event as thoroughly she retained her crown without real difficulty.

Leading up to the 2008/09 season Schild suffered a bad injury while training on the Rettenbach slope just two weeks before the start of the season in Soelden, fracturing her leg in two different places after straddling a gate. That injury kept her away from the slopes for the entire winter.

Marlies Schild also has a sister, Bernadette, who has just started competing on the world cup after making her debut in the 2008 Bormio finals.