Christl Franziska Antonia Cranz-Borchers was a German alpine skier. Crantz was the dominating skier of the 1930s winning twelve world championship titles between 1934 and 1939. At the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen she won the Alpine skiing combined competition. Cranz was born 1914 in Brussels. She was the older sister of Rudolf Cranz. After the break-out of World War I, Cranz and her family fled from Belgium to Traifelberg near Reutlingen. There Cranz learnt skiing. Afterwards the family moved to Grindelwald and Freiburg. Alongside her apprenticeship as trainer and philologist she started a successful skiing career. In 1934 she won all titles at the German Championship. At the world championship in St. Moritz she won the slalom and the combined competition and was second in downhill. She won all titles at the world championships in 1937 and 1939. To this day, Cranz remains the most successful competitor at Alpine World Skiing Championships with twelve gold and three silver medals. At the 1936 Winter Olympics Cranz won the newly established alpine combined competition in a spectacular race. 

July 1st, 1914 in Brussels metropolitan area  /  Died:   Sep 28th, 2004