Brigitte ALBRECHT LORETAN

Brigitte Albrecht made her international debut in cross-country skiing at a World Cup event in December 1991, where she was 42nd and 20th in the 5 and 15 km classic events respectively. She first represented Switzerland at the Olympic Games in 1992, where she had a best individual finish of 17th in the 30 km and was 9th in the 4x5 km relay. At the 1993 World Championships she had a best placement of 25th in both the 15 km classic and 30 km freestyle events, and then attended the 1994 Winter Olympics, where she was 37th in the 30 km, 38th in the 15 km, and 5th in the relay. After a best finish of 25th in the 15 km pursuit and 14th in the 15 km pursuit and the 15 km freestyle at the 1995 and 1997 World Championships respectively, Albrecht-Loretan attended the 1998 Winter Olympics, where she had a best individual result of seventh in the 30 km. In the relay, she and her teammates Sylvia Honegger, Andrea Huber, and Natascia Leonardi Cortesi seemed to have clinched the bronze medal, but an amazing final leg by Italy’s Stefania Belmondo secured that nation the final podium spot by a margin of just under two seconds.

Undeterred, Albrecht remained active on the international scene and had a best result of 11th in the 15 km freestyle at the 1999 World Championships. Her only event at the 2001 edition was the 10 km pursuit, in which she finished 41st, at which point she decided to make the 2002 Winter Olympics the last major international tournament of her career. By then competing as Brigitte Albrecht-Loretan, she was 29th in the 5/5 km pursuit and 31st in the 15 km, but finally earned an Olympic medal alongside Huber, Leonradi (now Leonradi Cortesi), and Laurence Rochat in the relay. She was a Swiss national champion in cross-country skiing 14 times and won Switzerland’s prestigious Engadin Skimarathon three times (1999, 2001, and 2002) during her career.