Christl Haas (19 September 1943 – 8 July 2001) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n Alpine skier. She competed at the 1964 and 1968 Winter Olympics and won a gold and a bronze medal, respectively.

Biography

Haas grew up in

Hahnenkamm, Kitzbühel The Hahnenkamm is a mountain in Europe, directly southwest of Kitzbühel in the Kitzbühel Alps of Austria. The elevation of its summit is above sea level. The Hahnenkamm (''German'': rooster's comb) is part of the ski resort of Kitzbühel, a ...

, known for its alpine skiing courses. At the

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 ...

she won four

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competitions in total. At the Alpine skiing World Championship 1962 in

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it ha ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, she won gold in the downhill competition. Haas became a national hero as a twenty-year-old Olympic champion in the

event at the first Innsbruck Winter Olympics. She became an instant superstar in her homeland as she won the gold medal in her home nation. Haas followed up her success at Innsbruck with a bronze medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics in

Grenoble, France 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- ...

. After retiring from competitions Haas became a ski instructor and opened a sporting goods store in Sankt Johann. As an Austrian gold medalist, Haas was selected with luger

Josef Feistmantl Josef Feistmantl (23 February 1939 – 10 March 2019) was an Austrian luger who competed from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. He competed at three Olympic Games. Biography Feistmantl was born in Absam. Competing in two Winter O ...

to light the Olympic torch for the opening of the

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (german: XII. Olympische Winterspiele, french: XIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 ( bar, Innschbruck 1976, label= Austro-Bavarian), was a ...

on 4 February 1976. In 2001, she had a heart attack while swimming in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

Antalya Antalya () is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast outside the Ae ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and died as a result.

Notes and references

External links

*
Short biography from the Austrian Olympic Committee
1943 births 2001 deaths Alpine skiers at the 1964 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1968 Winter Olympics Austrian female alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers of Austria Olympic gold medalists for Austria Olympic bronze medalists for Austria Deaths by drowning Accidental deaths in Turkey Sportspeople from Tyrol (state) Olympic medalists in alpine skiing Medalists at the 1964 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1968 Winter Olympics Olympic cauldron lighters 20th-century Austrian women 21st-century Austrian women {{Austria-alpine-skiing-bio-stub