Lasse Kjus

Lasse Kjus (born January 14, 1971) is a retired Norwegian Alpine skier who has won the overall World Cup twice, an Olympic gold medal, and several World Championships. His combined career total of 16 Olympic and World Championship medals ranks 2nd all-time behind fellow Norwegian Kjetil André Aamodt.

Career

Kjus was born in Siggerud.

1999 World Championships

In February 1999, Kjus pulled off one of the most remarkable feats in the history of alpine skiing when he medaled in all five events at the FIS Alpine World Championships in Vail, Colorado. Three skiers had previously earned four medals at a single World Championships (Toni Sailer of Austria in 1958 at Bad Gastein, Marielle Goitschel of France in 1966 at Portillo, Chile, Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland in 1987 at Crans-Montana) — including two (Sailer and Goitschel) who did so when only 4 medal events were contested — but no one before or since has medaled in all five alpine disciplines, downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom, and combined, at a single championships.

He started off on February 2 by tying Austrian great Hermann Maier for gold in super G. Four days later, in the downhill at nearby Beaver Creek, Kjus settled for silver, 0.31 seconds behind Maier. On February 9 in the combined event, he narrowly missed his second gold, finishing in silver-medal position only 0.16 seconds behind compatriot Kjetil André Aamodt. With momentum building, Kjus captured gold in the giant slalom on February 12, and then finished off his remarkable run two days later with silver in his weakest event, slalom. He had the lead after the first of two runs of slalom, but skied conservatively to assure he would win a fifth medal. He finished a scant 0.11 seconds behind Kalle Palander of Finland over two runs. Reflecting on his performance that day and the entire fortnight in Colorado, Kjus said "I always try my best, but I could never have dreamed... maybe I could have skied faster in the second run, but I didn't want to be too aggressive. I knew I could get a podium, and that's all I wanted." He missed winning all five gold medals by a combined total of slightly more than half a second (0.58 seconds). Most impressively, he performed the feat while suffering from a chest infection which had dogged him all winter and often left him coughing and wheezing at the bottom of courses.

After the race, Kjus offered some advice to wild young American Bode Miller, who was competing in his first Worlds: "Control your abandon." Miller finished 8th in the slalom event.

World Cup victories

Lasse Kjus has won 18 World Cup events: 10 in Downhill, 2 in Super-G, 2 in Giant Slalom and 4 in the Combined Event.

Overall

Individual victories

External links

* [http://www.tromso2018.no/bildeserier/article3160661.ece Pictures of Lasse Kjus]