Personal information | |
---|---|
Born | Bend, Oregon, U.S. | July 24, 1949
Occupation | Alpine skier |
Height | 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) |
Skiing career | |
Disciplines | Giant slalom, slalom, Downhill, combined |
Club | Bend Skyliners |
World Cup debut | March 1967 (age 17) |
Retired | February 1970 (age 20) |
Olympics | |
Teams | 1 – (1968) |
Medals | 0 |
World Championships | |
Teams | 2 – (1968, 1970) includes Olympics |
Medals | 0 |
World Cup | |
Seasons | 3 – (1968 – 70) |
Wins | 5 – (4 SL, 1 GS) |
Podiums | 12 – (10 SL, 2 GS) |
Overall titles | 0 – (4th in 1969) |
Discipline titles | 0 – (2nd in SL, 1969) |
Christina "Kiki" Cutter (born July 24, 1949) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She was the first American to win a World Cup event, a slalom race in Oslo, Norway, on February 25, 1968. [1] Although Cutter competed on the World Cup circuit for less than three years, her five career victories led the U.S. alpine team for eleven years, [1] surpassed by Phil Mahre in 1979.
Born in central Oregon in Bend, Cutter learned to ski and race at Mount Bachelor, known as "Bachelor Butte" until 1983. She was one of six children of Dr. Robert Cutter and Jane Cutter, who relocated to Bend from the Midwest in 1948, and Kiki was the first in the family born in Oregon. [2] Cutter was a junior racer at Mount Bachelor and gained recognition for her abilities; [3] she won the U.S. junior downhill championship in 1967 at age 17. [4]
Not originally on the World Cup or Olympic teams in 1968, Cutter, age 18, and Judy Nagel, age 16, were brought over to Europe in January, a few weeks ahead of the Olympics, to compete for berths on the U.S. Olympic team, which they both made. [5] [6] Cutter competed with the team at the Grenoble Olympics in 1968 and the World Championships in 1970. In the 1968 games, she placed higher than any American woman and was the only American woman to ski in all three events—slalom, giant slalom, and downhill. [7] Following the Olympic competition, her rise to stardom continued in Norway, with her first World Cup victory at age 18. [8] [9] Cutter finished ninth in the overall standings in 1968. With three World Cup wins the next year (giant slalom at Oberstaufen, West Germany, [10] and slalom victories at Mount St. Anne, Quebec, and Waterville Valley, New Hampshire), she finished fourth in the overall standings and second in slalom in 1969. [11] Cutter won her fifth and final World Cup race at St. Gervais, France, in 1970. [12] [13] During her brief amateur career, Cutter had five World Cup victories, twelve podiums, and 25 top-10 finishes, all in the technical events, with one victory and two podiums in giant slalom and the rest in slalom. [12] After the 1970 World Championships in mid-February, Cutter retired from international competition at age 20. [14] [15] She raced professionally on the women's Pro Tour in North America for several years. [16]
Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Downhill |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1968 | 18 | 9 | 5 | 9 | — |
1969 | 19 | 4 | 2 | 6 | — |
1970 | 20 | 19 | 9 | — | — |
Points were only awarded for top ten finishes (see scoring system).
Season | Date | Location | Discipline | Place |
---|---|---|---|---|
1968 | 25 Jan 1968 | ![]() | Slalom | 3rd |
24 Feb 1968 | ![]() | Giant slalom | 3rd | |
25 Feb 1968 | Slalom | 1st | ||
16 Mar 1968 | ![]() | Slalom | 3rd | |
28 Mar 1968 | ![]() | Slalom | 3rd | |
1969 | 3 Jan 1969 | ![]() | Giant slalom | 1st |
7 Jan 1969 | ![]() | Slalom | 3rd | |
16 Jan 1969 | ![]() | Slalom | 3rd | |
16 Feb 1969 | ![]() | Slalom | 2nd | |
15 Mar 1969 | ![]() | Slalom | 1st | |
22 Mar 1969 | ![]() | Slalom | 1st | |
1970 | 22 Jan 1970 | ![]() | Slalom | 1st |
Year | Age | Slalom | Giant slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1968 | 18 | DQ1 | 21 | not run | 17 | not run |
From 1971 to 1973, Cutter was married to Bob Beattie, coach of the U.S. Ski Team and later skiing promoter and television commentator. [17] [18] [19]
Cutter participated in two nationally televised women's Superstars competitions, where she placed third and fourth. [1] She helped create the Kiki Cutter World Cup Ski Racing Scholarship in 1993 to help develop careers for youth ski racers. [1] Cutter appeared in Bausch & Lomb advertisements for Ray-Ban sunglasses in the late 1980s. [20]
She lives in Oregon, in her hometown of Bend, and is the founder, publisher, and president of Bend Living magazine. [2] [21]
Tina Maze is a retired Slovenian World Cup alpine ski racer.
Wallace Jerold "Buddy" Werner was an American alpine ski racer in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Tanja Tuulia Poutiainen is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Finland. She specialized in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom, and was the silver medalist in the women's giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.
Debra Rae "Debbie" Armstrong is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Seattle, Washington. She was the first Olympic gold medalist from the U.S. in women's alpine skiing in twelve years, winning the giant slalom at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
Michaela Dorfmeister is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. Her specialities were both the downhill and the super-G disciplines, although she skied in and had success in giant slalom.
Susan Corrock Luby is a former World Cup alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team in the early 1970s. Talented in all three disciplines, she had 16 top ten finishes in World Cup competition: 8 in downhill, 2 in giant slalom, and 6 in slalom.
William Winston Kidd is a former World Cup alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team from 1962 to 1970.
Régine Cavagnoud was a World Cup alpine ski racer from France. She was the World Cup and World Champion in Super-G in 2001. Later that year, Cavagnoud was involved in a high-speed collision while training and died two days later. She competed at three Winter Olympics and five world championships.
Katharine Kreiner-Phillips is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Canada.
Waterville Valley is a ski resort in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, United States. It is located within the White Mountain National Forest. Built on Mount Tecumseh, with a summit elevation of 3,997 feet (1,218 m) above sea level, the ski trails extend to a high point on the south ridge of the mountain at 3,840 feet (1,170 m), offering a vertical drop of 2,020 feet (615 m). The ski area has 11 lifts, including two high-speed quads and the slopes primarily face east and northeast.
Tamara McKinney is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She won four World Cup season titles, most notably the 1983 overall, the first American woman title holder for a quarter century. McKinney's other three season titles were in giant slalom and slalom (1984). She was a world champion in the combined event in 1989, her final year of competition.
Michaela Kirchgasser is a retired Austrian alpine ski racer. She raced in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom, and also the combined.
Kathrin Hölzl is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Germany. Born in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, she was the gold medalist in the giant slalom at the 2009 World Championships.
Kristina Lyn Koznick is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She raced in the technical events and specialized in slalom.
Marilyn Cochran Brown is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Judy Ann Nagel is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Erica Adams "Rickey" Skinger is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Penny McCoy is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Ester Ledecká is a Czech snowboarder and alpine skier. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Ledecká won gold medals in the super-G in alpine skiing and in the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding, becoming the first person to not only compete in the Winter Olympics using two different types of equipment but to go further and win two gold medals and do so at the same Winter Olympics. She was the second woman to win an Olympic gold in two separate disciplines but the first to do so at the same Winter Olympics. She was the first Czech to win the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding at the FIS Snowboard World Cup.
Robert Prime Beattie was an American skiing coach, skiing promoter and commentator for ABC Sports and ESPN. He was head coach of the U.S. Ski Team from 1961 to 1969 and co-founded the Alpine Skiing World Cup in 1966. His work as a ski-racing commentator for ABC included four Winter Olympic Games, from 1976 through 1988.