Steve LOCHER

Steve Locher took up skiing at four years old and participated in his first race at the age of eight. He joined the Swiss national team as a junior in 1985 and began competing as a senior in 1990, the year of his first World Cup victory (in the Super G). He debuted at the World Championships in 1991, where he was fifth in the combined and sixth in the Super G, and then went on to compete at the 1992 Winter Olympics, where he earned a bronze medal in the combined. He also failed to finish in the Giant Slalom and the slalom at these Games. He was fifth again in the combined and eighth in the Giant Slalom at the 1993 World Championships, and twelfth in the combined at the 1994 Winter Olympics, where he also failed to finish the Giant Slalom. After missing the 1995 season, he was fifth and thirtieth and seventh and fourth in the Super G and Giant Slalom at the 1996 and 1997 World Championships respectively, and made his final appearance at the Winter Olympics in 1998, where he was sixth in the Giant Slalom and fourteenth in the Super G. He finished his World Championship career in 1999 with a bronze medal in the Giant Slalom and a seventh-place finish in the Super G. He had a total of nine podium finishes in World Cup events over his career, three of which were victories.

Locher ran his final World Cup race in March 2002 and retired from active competition shortly thereafter. He worked as a coach for many years before being recruited to Swiss-Ski, the Swiss national skiing federation, in 2010 as a coach for his country’s World Cup team. He was injured in a traffic accident in December 2010, along with several other national coaches, but recovered from his injuries and eventually resumed coaching.