Good Luck, D

He has been World Champion, won twelve World Cup races and seven US Championships. After his most successful season yet, Daron Rahlves is retiring from the sport.

On 13 March 1994 Daron Rahlves stood in the Whistler finish area and looked up at the score board, breathing heavily: the number 62 is displayed next to the word place. And next to that:  + 4,48. That’s how far he lagged behind the winner of the Super G, his American countryman Tommy Moe (the Olympic Champion won his only World Cup race that day). Although he never placed anything as badly as that again, 13 March 1994 was a successful and important day in Daron’s life. 20 years and 9 months old, the Californian had fulfilled the first of his dreams: being part of the American World Cup team.

Thousands of miles for his career

Daron Rahlves was born on 12 June 1973 in Walnut Creek, CA, and first stood on skis aged three. When he was twelve, his parents decided that the regular nine-hour weekend trips to the snow were too exhausting, so the family moved to Lake Tahoe. There Daron could ski every day. And he did it so well that it wasn’t long before he was one of the best in his year on the West Coast of the USA.

“But the really good guys were skiing on the East Coast”, Daron says. So at the age of 14 he moved eastwards. He went to the Green Mountain Valley School in Vermont, a ski academy with a clear mission: to prepare young racing skiers for a great career. Doug Lewis, third in the 1985 World Championship Downhill, and A.J. Kitt, third in the 1992 World Championship Downhill, were shining beacons: proving oneself at GMVS meant being able to keep up with the world’s best. “And that was exactly what I wanted too.”

 

World Champion becomes World Champion

Even if is career progressed smoothly towards the top, he wasn’t wearing sport blinkers. On the contrary, from an early stage Daron was considered a multi-talent, his hobbies were soccer, tennis, golf, water-skiing and riding a dirt-bike. Jet-ski was even a little more than a hobby: he collected his first World Championship title in 1993 – on the water.

A second title – this one on snow – followed in 2001: Daron Rahlves won the Super G at the World Championships in St. Anton. Four years later, at the 2005 World Championships in Bormio, he added two more medals to his tally: silver in the Downhill and bronze in the Giant Slalom. One World Cup victory, however, outshines all his other trophies: in 2003 he was the first American to win the Hahnenkamm Downhill in Kitzbühel. “It was the most satisfying day of my life”, Daron said after the victory ceremony. He had fulfilled his greatest dreams. This is how he explained his triumph to his American countrymen, who were not familiar either with his sport in general or the significance of Kitzbühel in particular: “Everything revolves around this race. Kitzbühel is the Super Bowl of skiing.”

A winner says goodbye

Downhill-Daron, who married his soulmate Michelle Shetler in September 2003, won a total of 12 World Cup races: nine Downhills and three Super Gs. He was US Champion seven times (Giant Slalom 1995 & 1996, Super G 2000, 2004, 2005 & 2006 and Downhill 2001) and collected a grand total of 5,105 points in 12 World Cup seasons. In 2003/2004 he was runner-up in both the Downhill and Super G World Cup competitions. His most successful season was also his last: in 2005/2006 Daron Rahlves finished in 4th place overall.

On 23 March 2006 Daron Rahlves stood in the Sugarloaf finish area and looked up at the score board, smiling: the number 1 is displayed next to the word place. In his final race, at the National Championships, he won the Super G competition. A worthy finish to a great career.

Find out how Daron Rahlves pictures his life without the Alpine Ski Circuit in  the upcoming interview on www.redbull.com.