They were the dream couple of German winter sports – Rosi Mittermaier and Christian Neureuther. A little over a year ago, “Goldrosi” died at the age of 72. In a film from the BR series “Lebenslinien”, Christian Neureuther (74) remembers the woman of his life.
They didn't dream of a trip to Hawaii, but rather "that we would be able to climb a mountain like this and look down from above for a long time," says Christian Neureuther at one point in this film. Rosi Mittermaier nods in agreement. That's 2018 over a snack on the Kreuzjoch in the Kitzbühel Alps, and at this point no one could have guessed that the two only had a few years left together. On January 4, 2023, Mittermaier died of cancer at the age of 72. On the occasion of Christian Neureuther's upcoming 75th birthday
,
BR television will show a portrait of Daniela Agostini from the series
"Life Lines"
next Monday, April 22nd at 10 p.m. It is entitled “Christian Neureuther and Rosi Mittermaier – An Undying Love”.
It is an unusual film because it contains many scenes from a portrait from that same year in 2018, which was subtitled “Gold in the Combination”. In it they remember the successes of “Goldrosi” and talk about the special moments of their relationship. Even back then, Christian Neureuther was the more talkative, and so the transitions between the old and the new sequences are fluid - especially since the 74-year-old has hardly changed externally since then.
The first encounter with Rosi Mittermaier “struck him like lightning”
The scenes from 2018 show how credible Neureuther's words from 2024 are. It is believed that the first encounter with Rosi while skiing in 1966 – he was 16, she was 15 – “struck him like lightning”. And that he felt like he had been transported back to the Romantic era “in the way we approach each other”. In fact, Rosi and Christian kept their love secret for a long time to protect their privacy.
However, by the time of Rosi Mittermaier's medals at the Olympic Games in 1976 - two golds, one silver - the couple had become a public couple. Christian Neureuther, who was not quite as successful as a ski racer, sometimes felt like a “second-class person” alongside his successful wife. In 2018, Rosi Mittermaier reflected on the “mass euphoria” that set in after her victories, recounting, rather amusedly, the onslaught of fans on her Home, the Winklmoosalm near Reit im Winkl. Author Agostini illustrates the retrospectives with historical material from the careers of the exceptional athletes.
Christian Neureuther made it clear in 2018 - still in Rosi Mittermaier's presence - that the happiness of the two does not depend on gold, silver and bronze, but “on the values that you live”. When the Christian Neureuther of 2024 speaks of his deceased wife, his voice often trembles and you can feel how fresh the wound still is. But he decided to look forward because “she didn’t want us to be sad.”
In one of the last scenes you can see the older Rosi Mittermaier plowing across the slopes as elegantly as ever. Christian Neureuther comments that she left traces in the snow, but the deepest ones were “in the heart”.
She left the deepest traces in the heart.
Christian Neureuther