Spider Sabich
| — Alpine skier ♂ — | |||||||
| Disciplines |
Slalom, Giant Slalom, Downhill, Combined |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Red Hornet - Edelweiss, CA University of Colorado |
||||||
| Born |
January 10, 1945 Sacramento, California, U.S. |
||||||
| Died | March 21, 1976 (aged 31) Aspen, Colorado, U.S. |
||||||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||
| World Cup debut | January 1967 (age 22) inaugural season |
||||||
| Retired | April 1970 (age 26) (World Cup) |
||||||
| Olympics | |||||||
| Teams | 1 – (1968) | ||||||
| Medals | 0 | ||||||
| World Championships | |||||||
| Teams | 2 – (1968, 1970) includes Olympics |
||||||
| Medals | 0 | ||||||
| World Cup | |||||||
| Seasons | 4 – (1967–70) | ||||||
| Wins | 1 – (1 SL) | ||||||
| Podiums | 4 – (4 SL) | ||||||
| Overall titles | 0 – (11th in 1969) | ||||||
| Discipline titles | 0 – (7th in SL, 1969) | ||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||
Vladimir Peter Sabich, Jr. (January 10, 1945 – March 21, 1976) was an American alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team on the World Cup circuit in the late 1960s. He competed at the 1968 Winter Olympics and was the pro ski racing champion in 1971 and 1972. Sabich was killed by gunshot under controversial circumstances in 1976.
The grandson of Croatian immigrants, Sabich was the second child of Vladimir (1915–2001) and Frances Sabich (1911–2003). His lifelong nickname "Spider" was given by his father, as a result of thin arms and legs at a premature birth. Spider's father was an officer of the California Highway Patrol and had volunteered in World War II as a B-25 pilot in the Air Force; he was held as a POW in Siberia by the Soviets for a year after his plane was shot-up over northern Japan and forced down near Vladivostok. After the war, Vlad was a test pilot and then returned to his job with the CHP in Sacramento, and in 1950 he was transferred to Kyburz on Highway 50, southwest of Lake Tahoe.
The three Sabich children (Mary, Spider, and Steve) learned to ski at Edelweiss ski area, about a dozen miles (20 km) up the highway, a mile past Twin Bridges. They attended a one-room school in Kyburz, Silver Fork Elementary, and went to class in the summer and skied during the winter, frequently arriving in their father's patrol car.
...
Wikipedia