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 startnumbers. (Nr.124)