Amelie Kober was highly regarded among snowbarding insiders before the 2006 Olympics, but it wasn’t until she won silver in Torino that the rest of the world started to take her seriously. After that, the snowboarder from Fischbachau’s life completely changed. She not only received the greatest amount of media attention a German snowboarder has ever got, but she also realised that after her greatest achievement to date, the national federation would place its highest hopes in her.

Kober, who moved from skiing to snowboarding at the age of twelve, is still Germany’s best chance at a medal in major competitions like the Olympic Winter Games or the FIS Snowboard World Championships. Kober demonstrated in 2007 that she could handle the pressure by winning Silver in the Parallel Giant Slalom at the World Cup Series event held in Arosa, Switzerland. She also showed this ability in 2013 by winning two Bronze medals at the World Cup Series event held in Quebec, Canada.

These two medals from the 2013 WCS are particularly noteworthy because Kober has been a mother to a young boy named Lorenz since 2010; indeed, the fact that she was pregnant at the time of the 2010 Winter Olympics was the reason she didn’t compete at full strength. The racer, who has won twelve World Cup races and placed on the podium on 20 occasions, won her second Olympic medal, a bronze, in the PSL event at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.