— Alpine skier — | ||||||||||
Disciplines |
Giant slalom, Slalom, Combined |
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Born |
Kranj, SFR Yugoslavia |
January 3, 1957 |||||||||
World Cup debut | December 10, 1976 | |||||||||
Retired | March 26, 1988 | |||||||||
Olympics | ||||||||||
Medals | 0 (0 gold) | |||||||||
World Championships | ||||||||||
Medals | 1 (0 gold) | |||||||||
World Cup | ||||||||||
Seasons | 12 | |||||||||
Wins | 8 | |||||||||
Podiums | 33 | |||||||||
Overall titles | 0 | |||||||||
Discipline titles | 1 | |||||||||
Medal record
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Bojan Križaj ( listen ) (born January 3, 1957) is a former Slovenian alpine skier. During his international career he competed for the then-existing Yugoslavia.
Križaj, born in Kranj, was a member of a well known Tržič ski family so he started skiing at the age of 3. In the season 1976/77 he received the first World Cup point, qualified among the 15 best slalom runners and later during that season in Madonna di Campiglio he hit his first top 3 podium. On January 20, 1980 he achieved the first Yugoslav World Cup victory in Wengen, Switzerland and later he won seven more times, thus still being Yugoslavia's and Slovenia's most successful male alpine skier ever.
At 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, U.S., he reached the fourth place in giant slalom, missing the bronze medal by only two hundredths of second. Four years later he took the athlete's oath at the opening ceremony for Sarajevo's 1984 Winter Olympics. He caused a stir when he spoke the oath not in Croatian or Serbian but in Slovene. Despite great expectations of the Yugosalv audience he finished ninth in giant slalom, much less than expected. Križaj should also have competed at 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but he got injured a few days before the event.