Didier Défago
Défago in 2014 | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 2 October 1977 Morgins, Valais, Switzerland | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Alpine skier | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Skiing career | |||||||||||||||
| Disciplines | Downhill, Super G giant slalom, combined | ||||||||||||||
| World Cup debut | 7 March 1996 (age 18) | ||||||||||||||
| Retired | 18 March 2015 (age 37) | ||||||||||||||
| Website | DidierDefago.ch | ||||||||||||||
| Olympics | |||||||||||||||
| Teams | 4 – (2002–2014) | ||||||||||||||
| Medals | 1 (1 gold) | ||||||||||||||
| World Championships | |||||||||||||||
| Teams | 7 – (2001–09, '13–15) | ||||||||||||||
| Medals | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| World Cup | |||||||||||||||
| Wins | 5 – (3 DH, 2 SG) | ||||||||||||||
| Podiums | 16 | ||||||||||||||
| Overall titles | 0 – (6th in 2005, 2009) | ||||||||||||||
| Discipline titles | 0 – (3rd in DH, SG; 2009) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Didier Défago (born 2 October 1977) is a Swiss retired World Cup alpine ski racer.
Born in Morgins, Valais, Défago made his World Cup debut at age 18 in March 1996, and was Swiss national champion in downhill (2003) and giant slalom (2004). At the 2010 Winter Olympics, he won the downhill at Whistler to become the Olympic champion.
Défago finished the 2005 World Cup season as sixth overall and fourth in the Super-G, his most successful season so far. In 2009 he won two downhill races in a row, the classics at Wengen and Kitzbühel. He was the first to win these in consecutive weeks since Stephan Eberharter in 2002, and the first Swiss racer since Franz Heinzer in 1992.
While training on a glacier above Zermatt in mid-September 2010, Defago fell and injured ligaments in his left knee, ending his 2011 season.
Défago announced his retirement in March 2015, after a second-place finish at the World Cup finals in the downhill in Méribel, France, and had his final World Cup race the next day in the super-G.