Lasse Kjus

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Men’s Alpine Skiing
Olympic medalist
Lasse Kjus
Medal record
Gold	1994 Lillehammer	Combined
Silver	1998 Nagano	Downhill
Silver	1998 Nagano	Combined
Silver	2002 Salt Lake City	Downhill
Bronze	2002 Salt Lake City	Giant Slalom
World Championships
Gold	1993 Morioka	Combined
Gold	1999 Vail	Giant Slalom
Gold	1999 Vail	Super-G
Silver	1996 Sierra Nevada	Combined
Silver	1997 Sestrières	Downhill
Silver	1997 Sestrières	Slalom
Silver	1997 Sestrières	Giant Slalom
Silver	1999 Vail	Downhill
Silver	1999 Vail	Slalom
Silver	1999 Vail	Combined
Silver	2003 St. Moritz	Combined

Lasse Kjus (born January 14, 1971) is a 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.

1 Career
2 1999 World Championships
3 World Cup victories
- 3.1 Overall
- 3.2 Individual victories

[edit] Career

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Kjus was born in Siggerud.

[edit] 1999 World Championships

In February of 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Overall

Season	Discipline
2001	Combined
1999	Overall
1999	Downhill
1999	Combined
1996	Overall
1994	Combined

[edit] Individual victories

Date	Location	Race
January 16, 1994	Kitzbühel	Combined
February 2, 1995	Vail	Super-G
December 21, 1995	Kranjska Gora	Giant Slalom
December 29, 1995	Bormio	Downhill
March 6, 1996	Kvitfjell	Downhill
January 26, 1997	Kitzbühel	Combined
March 2, 1997	Kvitfjell	Downhill
December 12, 1998	Val-d'Isère	Downhill
December 18, 1998	Val Gardena	Downhill
January 16, 1999	Wengen	Downhill
January 17, 1999	Wengen	Combined
January 22, 1999	Kitzbühel	Downhill
March 10, 1999	Sierra Nevada	Downhill
January 21, 2001	Kitzbühel	Combined
December 19, 2003	Val Gardena	Super-G
January 22, 2004	Kitzbühel	Downhill
December 4, 2004	Beaver Creek	Giant Slalom
March 10, 2005	Lanzerheide	Downhill