Christa Kinshofer was born as daughter of Alfred and Maria Kinshofer in Munich. She grew up with three brothers and sisters in the Bavarian town
Miesbach, where the parents were running a successful engineering company. As a child she also competed in figure skating. In 1966 she became member of SC Miesbach. With figure skating, she was "Kids Champion" in Munich at the age of 8. She concentrated already as a child on alpine ski races. From 1971 on, she participated in races, whilst attending high school in Berchtesgaden. She was West German youth champion several times. She scored her first World Cup points in the 1977 season with a tenth place in slalom. Her breakthrough came in the 1979 season, when she won 5 World Cup giant slaloms in a row. In 1979 Kinshofer was voted as Sportswoman of the year in West Germany. One year later she won the silver medal in slalom at the Olympic Games in Lake Placid. Kinshofer was lying in second position of the overall world cup when a serious accident, which resulted in a fracture in her right ankle, forced her to a break of 11 months. She fell out with the West German Ski Federation (DSV) because of different opinions about training methods, and was therefore forced to leave the DSV. At that point, she switched to the Dutch national ski team. Because of deprivation of all FIS World ranking list points, she had to start amongst the last starting numbers. Because of her talent, to sell and articulate in front of camera, she was offered several advertising contracts. During her career, she was called "Glamour Girl" and "Hollywood Christa" by the media. == Later careers ==