Hans Petter Buraas

In his Olympic début and with flaming orange/red hair, Norway’s Hans Petter Buraas shocked the ski world and went on to win the slalom gold medal at Nagano in 1998, after rallying on his second run to win in a total time of 1:49.31. He had finished the first run trailing the reigning World Cup slalom champion, Austrian Thomas Sykora, by 22-hundredths of a second, but completed the second run almost 1.6 seconds faster than the Austrian. A snowboarding enthusiast, who has dyed his hair white, green, and then orange/red for the 1998 Olympic season, Buraas missed Salt Lake City 2002 due to injury, and was unable to duplicate his previous Olympic success in Turin 2006, where he did not finish the slalom.

Buraas competed in slalom at four World Championships, finishing eighth in 2007 in Are, Sweden, and, in the three others, was disqualified (2003) or did not finish (1999, 2001). At the World Junior Championships, Buraas won the bronze medal in the giant slalom in 1994 at Lake Placid, USA (also 25th in super-g) and had two top-20 finishes in 1993 (17th in giant slalom, 19th in super-G).

Buraas’ 10 seasons on the World Cup produced one podium victory (slalom) in 2000 at Sestriere, Italy, and nine more podium finishes (four seconds, five thirds). Buraas made his international début in a 1991 FIS slalom race in Norway. In 2001, Buraas had what first appeared to be a minor spill in training in Norway, but it turned into a career-threatening injury, requiring neck surgery for two disc dislocations. He attended Norwegian Toppidrettsgymnas in Baerum, and was introduced to the sport by his engineer father Bjorn, at the age of seven.