Kjus, Lasse

Lasse Kjus, (born Jan. 14, 1971, Oslo, Nor.), Norwegian Alpine skier who overcame a series of medical problems to become one of the world’s most consistent skiers in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Kjus took up skiing at age seven, and his first coach was Finn Aamodt, the father of his friend Kjetil Andre Aamodt. In 1990 either Kjus or the younger Aamodt, by then roommates, won every title at the world junior championships. The following year Kjus fell while training, severely injuring his shoulder. which kept him from competition for months. After Kjus joined Norway’s national team, his early successes came in the combined event; he was the world champion in 1993 and the Olympic champion in 1994 at Lillehammer, Nor. Aamodt, however, won the overall 1994 World Cup title.

Two years later, after starting the season with great success, Kjus had a crash in Kitzbühel, Austria, that sidelined him for three weeks, but he recovered to win the season’s final downhill race (at Lillehammer) and captured the 1996 overall World Cup title. Frequent illness, however, led Kjus to seek medical attention in 1997, and doctors determined that he had a congenital nasal condition that required surgery. Despite that setback, he made history at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, by capturing a silver medal in the downhill and later the same day winning another silver in the combined—the first Alpine skier to medal twice in one day.

Plagued again by sickness, Kjus missed out on crucial point-producing races at the start of the 1998–99 season and sat out another six races late in the season. A defining moment came in February 1999, however, at the world championships in Vail, Colo. He tied Austrian star Hermann Maier for the gold in the opening event—the super-G—then triumphed over Maier in the giant slalom. When the championships ended, Kjus had won a record five medals. On the last day of the season, in Sierra Nevada, Spain, Kjus went head to head with Aamodt (they had stopped rooming together the year before). Although neither skied particularly well, Kjus picked up enough points to win by only 23—one of the closest finishes in history—for his second overall World Cup title.

Kjus added to his Olympic medal total in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2002 when he captured silver in the men’s downhill and bronze in the giant slalom. He also won a silver medal in the combined event at the 2003 world championships, finishing just .07 seconds behind American Bode Miller. While Kjus competed at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, he did not medal. Kjus retired from competitive skiing following the 2006 season, after which he focused on promoting his signature line of ski apparel.