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 inraces, 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.