'Christl Haas' (born
September 19,
1943 – died
July 8,
2001) was an
Austrian
alpine skiing champion at the 1964 Winter Olympics.
Haas was born in at
Kitzbühel. In the
World Cup she won four
downhill competitions in total. At the Alpine skiing World Championship 1962 in
Chamonix,
France she won gold in the downhill competition.
Haas became a national hero as a twenty year old Olympic champion in the
downhill 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.
As an Austrian gold medalist, Haas was selected with luger
Josef Feistmantl to light the Olympic torch for the opening of the
1976 Winter Olympics on February 4, 1976.
In 2001, Christl Haas drowned while swimming in the
Mediterranean Sea at
Antalya,
Turkey.
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