Lasse Kjus (NOR)

DOB:  01/14/1971  Hometown:  Siggerud

Lasse Kjus of Norway, last season's Overall World Cup Champion, is the man who wouldn't give up. Like the Vikings of his heritage, Kjus keeps coming back for more, and more. He had an exceptional '98-'99 campaign despite health problems that forced him to the sidelines for several races.

In February, at the FIS World Championships in Vail, Kjus became the first racer in modern alpine competition to reach the podium in all five events. A month later Kjus celebrated his second title in the Overall World Cup standings after a tough battle with his teammate and friend Kjetil Aamodt and Austria's Hermann Maier, Overall winners in 1994 and 1998 respectively. In fact, Kjus had to sweat it out through the last giant slalom in Sierra Nevada at the World Cup finals to nail down his second Crystal Globe trophy. His first came on home soil in Lillehammer in '96.

Kjus is best known as a downhiller with eight career victories. Four of these were on the "classic" courses of Val d'Isère, Val Gardena, Wengen and Kizbühel, a feat not done since the great '74-'75 season of the "Kaiser," Austria's Franz Klammer.

Kjus made history in Lillehammer in '94 as the first Norwegian to win Olympic gold when he took first in the alpine combined. Just a year earlier he was victorious at the FIS World Championships in Morioka. But he didn't win his first World Cup race until November, '95 — a super G in Vail.

Kjus won two other competitions in giant slalom and downhill, but in '96 he suffered a terrible crash while training on the "Streif" at Kitzbühel. He took several years to build back his form, both physically and mentally. Winner of two downhills in Kvitfjell in '96 and '97, he also clinched five silver medals in '97 and '98 before his spectacular wins at the Vail Worlds in '99. Since '93, Kjus has won a total of 13 medals.

— Patrick Lang, MountainZone.com World Cup Correspondent