Chad Fleischer
Chad Fleischer ( born January 4, 1972 in Columbus, Nebraska ) is a former American alpine skier. He is two-time U.S. downhill champion in 1999 and sixth in the World Championship.
Fleischer is originally from Nebraska. After his family moved to Vail, he started at the age of ten years with the skiing. An initial moderate success, he landed in 1991, when he was 13 at the Junior World Championships in Norway Geilo in the downhill. In 1993 he made the jump to the U.S. Ski Team, which he served until 2003.
Between December 1993 and December 2001 Fleischer denied more than 90 World Cup races. Overall, he was also placed in the top ten five times. The best result he reached on 10 March 1999 with a second place in the downhill in the Sierra Nevada. In the end he was only 16 hundredths behind Norwegian Lasse Kjus.
He also celebrated in 1999 the World Ski Championships in Vail His most important international success. With the bonus of the local favorites he drove in the Super- G in one of the closest races in World Cup history to sixth. At Olympic Games Fleischer participated twice: in 1994 in Lillehammer and Nagano 1998. Both times but without much success.
The premature end of his career came on 10 January 2002. At a training run for Lauberhorn race in Wengen Fleischer tore all the ligaments and tendons in his right knee. Despite several operations, the knee was not fully loaded. Then he declared on 30 September 2003 his retirement from ski racing.
Fleischer now lives with his wife Renee on a ranch outside of Steamboat Springs.
Achievements
American Masters
- Departure: 1996, 1999