Winter Olympics Athlets Bios

Kjetil Andre Aamodt

Sport Alpine Skiing
Birthdate September 2, 1971
Birthplace Oslo, Norway
Residence Monaco
Olympics 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006

Kjetil Andre Aamodt is the all-time leader in Alpine skiing medals won at the Olympics Games. He debuted in 1992 at the Albertville Games, winning the super-G and taking bronze in the giant slalom. Two years later in Lillehammer, he won three more (downhill silver, super-G bronze and combined silver). He picked up career medals Nos. 6 and 7 in Salt Lake in 2002 with victories in the super-G and combined.

In Torino, he has added to his record, winning the super-G for his eighth. That also gave him four Olympic golds, which is tied for the best in Alpine history with Croatia's Janica Kostelic . Aamodt has 12 medals from world championships and won the overall World Cup title in 1994.

On Jan. 16, 2000, Aamodt entered elite territory in Alpine skiing, becoming just the fourth person ever to record a World Cup victory in each of the five Alpine disciplines. (Switzerland's Pirmin Zurbriggen, Luxembourg's Marc Girardelli and Austria's Guenther Mader were before him.) For Aamodt, the last piece of the puzzle was a slalom win, which he ultimately achieved in Wengen, Switzerland.

Aamodt's World Cup career dates back to the 1987-88 season. To illustrate how far back that was, in his first two World Cup races (both slalom), he competed against Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark and Italian ace Alberto Tomba. He remembers his first encounter with Tomba.