Calgary, 27 February 1988. XV Olympic Winter Games. Alpine skiing. Swiss athlete Pirmin ZURBRIGGEN , 7th, in action in the men's slalom event at Nakiska. Credit: IOC Olympic Museum Collections/Jean-Paul Maeder

Born: 4 February 1963

Birthplace: Saas Almagell (Switzerland)

Nationality: Switzerland

Sport: Skiing

ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Sarajevo 1984

Calgary 1988

AWARDS

Olympic medals:

Gold: 1

Bronze: 1

Other results:

World Championships

Gold: 4 (85, 87)

Silver: 4 (85, 87, 89)

Bronze: 1 (89)

The All-Round Ski Champion

Downhill skiers have a reputation as being wild and reckless. Pirmin Zurbriggen, who grew up in Switzerland's Valois Alps, was the opposite of this stereotype: a deeply religious homebody. But if he was mild-manned in his daily life, Zurbriggen transformed into an aggressive competitor when he attacked the slopes. Zurbriggen made his Olympic début in 1984, when he finished fourth in the downhill, missing a medal by only one tenth of a second. He also participated in the slalom, but did not finish. At the 1988 Calgary Olympics, Zurbriggen competed in all five Alpine events. He began with an explosive downhill run that earned him a half second victory over world champion Peter Müller. In the Alpine combined event, Zurbriggen recorded the fastest time of the downhill run and led by more than two seconds after the first slalom run. He seemed well on his way to a second gold medal when he hooked a tip on the 39th of 57 gates on the second slalom run and ended up on his back. Between the two runs of the giant slalom, Zurbriggen was riding on the chairlift when he witnessed a horrible accident in which a member of Austria's medical team was killed by a snow-grooming machine. A shaken Zurbriggen went ahead with his second run and earned the bronze medal.