Lasse Kjus (born 14 January 1971) 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 Norway. He won the overall World Cup title twice, an Olympic gold medal, and several

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, ...

. His combined career total of 16 Olympic and World Championship medals ranks second all-time behind fellow Norwegian

Kjetil André Aamodt Kjetil André Aamodt (born 2 September 1971) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Norway, a champion in the Olympics, World Championships, and World Cup. He is one of the most successful alpine ski racers from Norway. Biography Born in ...

Racing career

Born in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

, Kjus grew up in

Siggerud Siggerud is a village in the municipality of Ski, Norway, just a few kilometres away from the border of the municipality of Oslo where most of Siggerud's population work. Its population (2005) is 1,353, but probably over 2000 if you count the area ...

, but represented the club

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

s SK. In February 1999, Kjus pulled off one of the most remarkable feats in the history of alpine skiing when he medaled in all 5 events at the 1999 World Championships in

Vail Vail is a home rule municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 4,835 in 2020. Home to Vail Ski Resort, the largest ski mountain in Colorado, the town is known for its hotels, dining, and for the numer ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. Five skiers had previously earned four medals at a single World Championship (through 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as World Championships for alpine skiing):

Toni Sailer Anton Engelbert "Toni" Sailer (17 November 1935 – 24 August 2009) was an Austrian alpine ski racer, considered among the best in the sport. At age 20, he won all three gold medals in alpine skiing at the 1956 Winter Olympics. He nearly duplica ...

of Austria in 1956 at Cortina and in 1958 at

Bad Gastein Bad Gastein (; formerly ''Badgastein''; Southern Bavarian: ''Bod Goschdei'') is a spa town in the district of St. Johann im Pongau, in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Picturesquely situated in a high valley of the Hohe Tauern mountain range, it ...

Marielle Goitschel Marielle Goitschel (born 28 September 1945 in Sainte-Maxime) is a former French alpine skier. Marielle is the younger sister of Christine Goitschel, another champion skier of the time, and the aunt of speed skier Philippe Goitschel. After grea ...

of France in 1966 at

Portillo, Chile Portillo is a ski resort in South America, located in the Andes mountains of Chile. In the Valparaíso Region, it is from Los Andes, the nearest city, and by vehicle from Santiago. Its hotel sits at an elevation of above sea level, and the hig ...

Jean-Claude Killy Jean-Claude Killy (born 30 August 1943) is a French former World Cup alpine ski racer. He dominated the sport in the late 1960s, and was a triple Olympic champion, winning the three alpine events at the 1968 Winter Olympics, becoming the most su ...

of France in 1968 at

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

Rosi Mittermaier Rosa Anna Katharina Mittermaier-Neureuther (; 5 August 1950 – 4 January 2023) was a German alpine skier. She was the overall World Cup champion in 1976 and a double gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics. Mittermaier competed in alpine ...

of Germany in 1976 at Innsbruck, and

Pirmin Zurbriggen Pirmin Zurbriggen (born 4 February 1963) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the most successful ski racers ever, he won the overall World Cup title four times, an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Downhill, and nine W ...

of Switzerland in 1987 at

Crans-Montana Crans-Montana is a municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Chermignon, Mollens, Montana and Randogne merged to form the new municipality of Crans-Montana. ...

; the first four did so when only four medal events were contested, but no one before or since has medaled in all five alpine disciplines,

downhill Downhill may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse * ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...

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 ...

, giant slalom, slalom, and combined or Super-combined, at a single championship. He started off on 2 February by tying Austrian great

Hermann Maier Hermann Maier (born 7 December 1972) is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the "Herminator", Maier ranks among the greatest alpine ski racers in history, with four overall World Cup tit ...

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 9 February in the

combined event Combined track and field events are competitions in which athletes participate in a number of track and field events, earning points for their performance in each event, which adds to a total points score. Outdoors, the most common combined events ...

, he narrowly missed his second gold, finishing in silver-medal position only 0.16 seconds behind compatriot

. With momentum building, Kjus captured gold in the giant slalom on 12 February, 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. A particular curiosity was also his first heat in the Slalom race in Wengen, Switzerland, on 17 January 1999: He got out of the starting gate, got caught with the tip of his right ski, went backwards through the first gate, but finished the heat. He finished third overall – his best World Cup slalom result ever, documented on
YouTube video
Kjus raced for 17 seasons on the World Cup circuit; his first race was in January 1990 in Alta Badia, Italy, and his last in March 2006 in

Åre Åre () is a locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpen. 25% of the local eco ...

, Sweden. He won 18 World Cup events (10 in

, 2 in

, 2 in giant slalom and 4 combined), attained 60 podiums, and had 150 top ten finishes.

Legacy

In February 2015 Kjus (and Aamodt) were selected as recipients of the Legends of Honor by the Vail Valley Foundation, and inducted into the International Ski Racing Hall of Fame.

World Cup results

Season standings

Season titles

2 overall, 1 downhill, 3 combined ^official season title in the combined discipline
was not awarded until the 2007 season

Race victories

* 18 wins – (10 DH, 2 SG, 2 GS, 4 K) * 60 podiums

World Championships results

Olympic results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kjus, Lasse 1971 births Living people Norwegian male alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers of Norway Olympic gold medalists for Norway Olympic silver medalists for Norway Olympic bronze medalists for Norway Alpine skiers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics People from Ski, Norway Olympic medalists in alpine skiing FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Viken (county)