Didier Cuche (born 16 August 1974) is a former

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

alpine ski racer from Switzerland.

Career

Born in

Le Pâquier, Neuchâtel Le Pâquier () is a former municipality in the district of Val-de-Ruz in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. The municipalities of Boudevilliers, Cernier, Chézard-Saint-Martin, Coffrane, Dombresson, Engollon, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Fontain ...

, he competed in the downhill and

super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event d ...

, along with the

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up th ...

. He won the World Cup downhill and super-G title for the 2011 season and has won three previous downhill titles in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

, along with a giant slalom title in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

. Cuche has 21 World Cup race victories, along with 67 podiums (top three) and 181 top ten finishes. He is also an Olympic silver medalist and has won a total of four

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

medals (a gold, two silvers, and a bronze). He retired from competition following the 2012 season. At the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in th ...

in Nagano, Japan, Cuche was the silver medalist in the

, where he had exactly the same time as Hans Knauss resulting in a rare sharing of the medal (no bronze medal was awarded). Cuche switched from Atomic to

Head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals ...

skis following the 2006 season, joining

Bode Miller Samuel Bode Miller ( ; born October 12, 1977) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer. He is an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist, a two-time overall World Cup champion in 2005 and 2008, and the most successful male America ...

and Hermann Maier. During the 2007 season, Cuche was in top form, winning the downhill season title with a victory and four-second-place finishes. In the

Bormio Bormio ( lmo, Bormi, rm, italic=yes, , german: Worms im Veltlintal) is a town and ''comune'' with a population of about 4,100 located in the Province of Sondrio, Lombardy region of the Alps in northern Italy. The centre of the upper Valtellina ...

downhill on 28 December 2006 he finished second, 0.01 seconds behind winner

Michael Walchhofer Michael Walchhofer (born 28 April 1975) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. Biography Walchhofer was born in Radstadt, Salzburg, Austria, and started his career in slalom, but then moved over to the speed events. During his car ...

, the smallest measurable amount in ski racing. Cuche repeated as the World Cup downhill season champion in

with 584 points, five ahead of overall champion

. Cuche finished third overall and nearly won the super-G season title, finishing a single point behind champion Hannes Reichelt. At the 2009 World Championships in

Val-d'Isère Val-d'Isère (, literally ''Valley of Isère'') is a commune of the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie department (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region) in southeastern France. It lies from the border with Italy. It is on the border of the Vanoise Nat ...

, France, Cuche won the

and was the silver medalist in the downhill. A week after winning the super-G and downhill at Kitzbühel in

, Cuche broke his right thumb in the giant slalom at

Kranjska Gora Kranjska Gora (; german: Kronau) is a town in northwestern Slovenia, on the Sava Dolinka River in the Upper Carniola region, close to the Austrian and Italian borders. It is the seat of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora. Name Kranjska Gora wa ...

, Slovenia, on 29 January, two weeks before the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy Greene Wayne G ...

. The injury put Cuche's Olympic participation in doubt, and he was immediately flown to Switzerland. After successful thumb surgery, he was cleared to compete in the Olympics in Canada. Cuche had a disappointing Olympics and did not win any medal; however, he regained the title of World Cup downhill champion for the 2010 season at the first post-Olympic race. Cuche won the downhill on the challenging ''Olympiabakken'' course at

Kvitfjell Kvitfjell ( no, White mountain) is a ski resort in Norway, located in the municipality of Ringebu. Developed for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, it is one of the most modern resorts in the world, with snowmaking on 80% of the alpine pist ...

, Norway, on 6 March for his fifth World Cup victory of the season. Until 2010, Cuche had never won more than two World Cup events in a single season. On 22 January 2011, Cuche became the oldest race winner in the history of the

, winning the Hahnenkamm downhill in

Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbühel district (). Kitzbühe ...

at the age of . It was also his fourth downhill victory in Kitzbühel, which tied him with

Franz Klammer Franz Klammer (born 3 December 1953) is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria. Klammer dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons (1975– 78). He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsb ...

for the record on the Hahnenkamm. He has since added a fifth victory in Kitzbühel to his tally, thus becoming the sole record holder; Klammer was there to congratulate him at the finish. At the 2011 World Championships in February, he won the silver medal in the downhill. In March he won the World Cup downhill championship for the 2011 season. This marked the fourth time he won the season title (2011, 2010, 2008, 2007), a record only surpassed by

who won the title five times. He ended the 2011 World Cup season in first-place ranking in downhill and super-G, finishing second in the overall rankings to

Ivica Kostelić Ivica Kostelić (; born 23 November 1979) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Croatia. He specialized in slalom and combined, but was also one of the few alpine World Cup ski racers able to score points in all disciplines. He is the bro ...

After considerable speculation as to whether Cuche might instead retire, he opened the 2012 World Cup season by winning the downhill race at Lake Louise, Canada, further extending the age record he had last broken at in a super-G at Kvitfjell in March 2011. That record was extended yet again at Kitzbühel in January 2012 to . On 19 January 2012 Cuche announced his retirement for the end of the 2012 season. He gave his retirement speech in Kitzbühel during which he stated that he wanted to "leave the World Cup stage on a high". Only two days later, Cuche won the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel for the fifth time in his career, including his first World Cup win in 1998. The following week, Cuche won the downhill at Garmisch, Germany, for his twentieth World Cup victory. He extended the record for the oldest winner of a World Cup race with his 21st and last career victory in the super-G of Crans Montana on 24 February 2012 to . In December 2012, the Swiss ski federation announced that Cuche would work with his former teammates as a downhill coach after they suffered a slow start to the season.

Other awards

Cuche won the

Swiss Sports Personality of the Year The Swiss Athlete of the Year, Sports Personality of the Year was originally chosen annually from 1950 by the Switzerland, Swiss newspaper ''Sport''. As the newspaper was discontinued in the 1990s, the winners are now chosen by Swiss sports jour ...

in 2009 and 2011. In January 2012 during the "Swiss Awards" he won the Swiss Person of the Year award in 2011.

World Cup results

Season standings

Season titles

6 season titles: 4 downhill, 1

, 1

Race victories

*21 wins (12 downhill, 6

, 3

) *67 podiums (32 DH, 23 SG, 12 GS)

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

* * * '
Swiss Ski team official site
'
Didier Cuche
at Head Skis {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuche, Didier 1974 births Living people People from Val-de-Ruz District Swiss male alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Olympic alpine skiers of Switzerland Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in alpine skiing Olympic silver medalists for Switzerland FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Blancpain Endurance Series drivers Sportspeople from the canton of Neuchâtel