Christl Haas

Christl Haas grew up in Kitzbühel near the famed Hahnenkamm course. She was the 1960 Austrian Junior Champion and that year won an Arlberg-Kandahar race to stamp her as a future champion, confirming this in 1962 at the World Championships in Chamonix, winning the downhill gold medal. Her greatest triumph came in 1964 at the Innsbruck Olympics when she won the downhill in front of her nation’s ardent skiing fans. In 1968 at Grenoble,

Haas added Olympic bronze in the downhill. Between 1964-68 she had won multiple international races in the era before the World Cup, although she raced World Cup in its inaugural two seasons, making four podiums, all in downhill, in 1968. Haas retired after the 1967-68 season. During her career she won eight Austrian titles – one each in slalom and giant slalom, and three each in downhill and combined.

Haas became a ski instructor and also opened a sporting goods store in Sankt Johann. At the 1976 Winter Olympics she and luger Josef Feistmantl lit the two Olympic Flames at the Opening Ceremony, with Haas lighting the flame in honor of the 1964 Winter Olympics. In 1996 she was given a gold decoration for her services to the Republic of Austria. Haas died tragically when she had a heart attack and drowned while swimming in the Mediterranean while on holiday in Turkey.