USA’s Chris Krause is among ski racing’s best
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Peter Lange
Chirs Krause and Alexis Pinturault at the 2023 Courchevel FIS Alpine Ski World Championships
With 74 World Cup podiums, three Olympic medals, eight World Championship podiums, seven discipline globes and one overall, you would think everyone in ski racing would know Chris Krause. Uniquely, the most unknown, extremely successful US native in alpine skiing is from Door County, Wisconsin.
Undoubtedly, ski servicemen are the hardest-working people in the sport and they have a significant influence on the success of their athletes. Unfortunately, they are nearly invisible to the fans. Krause is one of the very best. He’s that special breed of human who can pick and prepare the fastest skis for the fastest racers. There are only a handful of these wizards worldwide, but without them, the best skiers cannot win at the highest levels. Krause has populated World Cup podiums with 12 skiers of both genders from four nations.
In 1985 a young Krause left Wisconsin to pursue his passion at the Green Mountain Valley School in Vermont. While there, a family friend and fellow Wisconsinite, Chris Hendrickson, recruited him to ski for the Sierra Nevada College Eagles. Although the Eagle ski team was outstanding, the school was tiny and could have been a better fit. After just three semesters, Krause transferred to the University of Utah. In Utah, Krause pursued a degree in commercial recreation, which required a 400-hour internship. Krause found that mentorship with a man he continues to admire greatly, Salomon’s Jim Schaffner.
The rise to the top begins
After graduating from Utah, Krause accepted a job running the Western portion of the Salomon domestic race program. Like every job Krause has had, he excelled. Many old timers remember him arriving at a late ’90s NorAm Crested Butte speed series with a van full of downhill and super-G skis and an uncompromising determination to do what it took to provide the best materials for his racers.
Once in Crested Butte, he organized a test track to collect the data he needed to identify the best skis and wax. Indeed, the other company’s race personnel prepared skis for their best. However, Krause provided a single-person World Cup level program. Sure, his lack of sleep may have made him a bit grumpy. However, no one he prepared skis for complained. Undoubtedly, at the time, few realized they were witnessing a genius. It was easier to believe he was just nuts.
Indeed, US World Cup speed event star Scott McCartney still remembers Krause’s work helping him to achieve a podium at the 1998 Junior World Championships in France. That podium qualified McCartney for the US ski team and kick-started his substantial racing career. Notably, In France, he raced on skis Krause prepared, skis which US Ski Team member Jacob Fiala rejected earlier in November; however, Krause never gave up believing the skis were fast.
However, after a few years of working in Salomon’s domestic race department, Krause attempted the “real world.” He asked Salomon if they had any positions, and they did. Consequently, he spent a year overseeing their testing of hiking shoes in Boulder, Colorado. Krause says, “The money was good and the hours were great. It was a good job but not the one for me.”
Back to ski service
There are very few people of Krause’s caliber in ski racing, so when he left the shoe industry, he quickly found work with Rossignol. Once again, he was in charge of a domestic program earning little money and working terrible hours, but he felt at home.
It was this job that catapulted Krause into a decades-long World Cup ski serviceman career. After working for Rossignol, he took a position with the Alpine Canada women’s speed team as a pool service ski technician preparing skis for some of the best Canadian women in history. The list of Canadian stars who benefited from his work includes World Cup podium speed event athletes Melanie Turgeon, Emily Brydon and Genevieve Simard. Between the 2001 -2004 seasons, the three women earned seven World Cup podiums, and Turgeon won the 2003 World Championship downhill in St Moritz.
Germany is home
To do his job better, Krause moved to Europe full-time in 2004. He took German language classes when he could, and by 2008, after marrying German World Cup racer Isabelle Huber, he was fully committed to living in the Bavarian village of Ruhpolding. Today they share a beautiful new home filled with two great kids, Emilla, who will be 14 in May, and Stefan, who turned 11 in January.
Swiss athletes
At the end of the 2004 season, Rossignol offered him an opportunity to work with two of their Swiss speed event men, Didier Défago and Bruno Kernen. During the 2005 and 2006 seasons, the two Swiss athletes earned three World Cup podiums and an Olympic super-G bronze medal in Sestriere, Italy.
However, at the end of the 2006 Olympic season, Krause was offered what turned out to be the opportunity of a lifetime. Swiss three-event star Didier Cuche was switching from Atomic to HEAD. At the same time, Cuche’s long-time friend and serviceman Dani Vaquin decided it was a good time to change the direction of his life and retired from traveling to run his hometown sport shop. After a few seasons working alongside Krause, Vaquin felt confident about recommending that Cuche hire Krause as his replacement. HEAD’s race boss Rainer Salzgeber agreed with Cuche’s request and contacted Krause to offer him the job. Working together with Cuche, the duo experienced extraordinary success until Cuche’s retirement at the end of the 2012 season. The rest is now history.
Krause/Cuche highlights
- 44 World Cup podiums
- 16 World Cup victories,
- Five in Kitzbühel
- Six World Cup season titles
- Four downhill titles
- One super-G title
- One giant slalom title
- Four World Championship podiums
- 2009 Val d’lsère World Champion super-G
During Cuche’s final 2012 season, Krause also provided skis and did some ski service for Canadian HEAD athlete Ben Thomsen. Working with Krause, Thomsen earned his only World Cup podium at the Olympic downhill test event in Sochi, Russia.
Work with US skiers
For the 2013 season, HEAD assigned Krause to work with Bode Miller and Ted Ligety. He prepared Ligety’s speed skis for the season and would do the service for Miller. However, to let Miller’s knee fully heal, it became clear he needed to sit out the 2013 season. Consequently, Krause handed the speed skis he had prepared for Ligety to his serviceman Alex Martin and was reassigned.
Starting in January 2013, he was working with US star Julia Mancuso. One of the reasons Krause is highly successful is the level of expert work he puts into the skis before the season. However, In this situation, he had to start his summer prep in January, a pressure-filled task only a true workaholic could accomplish. Although they only worked together for part of one season, they achieved two World Cup podiums and a super-G bronze at the 2013 Schladming World Championships. Notably, Ted Ligety won the World Championship super combined and the super-G on skis Krause had initially prepared in the prep period.
For the 2014 Olympic season, HEAD race director, Salzgeber, partnered Krause with USA’s Bode Miller, Andrew Weibrecht and Jared Goldberg. That season in Sochi, both Wiebrecht and Miller earned Olympic super-G medals. Miller also achieved three World Cup podiums, two of them in Kitzbühel. However, 2013 turned out to be Miller’s last season racing World Cup and the podiums were the last of his fantastic career.
Overall globe with Lara Gut-Behrami
For the 2016 season, HEAD selected Krause to work with Swiss star Lara Gut-Behrami. It was a very stressful season, and the work demands took the proven workhorse to his absolute limits. However, that season was Gut-Behrami’s best. She earned 13 World Cup podiums; six were wins, and together, they achieved both the season super-G and overall season titles.
A truly elite three-event skier is a massive amount of work for a single ski serviceman, and that year Gut-Behrami even dabbled in slalom. The toll the job took on Krause, his wife and two children was too much. Krause left HEAD and again joined Miller in his unsuccessful attempt to return to ski racing and develop a Bomber race ski program.
German Federation DSV gets lucky
In 2017, Germany’s Head Men’s Coach, Christian Schwaiger, convinced Krause to work with the DSV. Krause was still recovering from years of intense work and travel and liked the idea of being able to work but spending more time with his family. He started by helping with the Europa Cup before becoming the Cheftechniker Alpine running the DSV’s Technology Center.
Krause was responsible for all testing and trained many new ski service personnel when they started with the federation. He realized the job had some benefits but was frustrated that he couldn’t bring the center to its full potential. He always felt like he was swimming upstream and experienced regular pushback. During his time with Germany, he contributed to their considerable success, but like the Salomon shoe testing job, it wasn’t a perfect fit.
A new chapter begins
As usual, a good solution came his way. HEAD approached Krause with an interesting proposal for the 2023 season. They asked him to join forces with their ski serviceman Michael Gmeiner to do the ski work for the decorated French superstar Alexis Pinturault. Pinturault had lost his serviceman to the reemerging Kästle ski company and their recently signed Czech two-sport Olympic star Ester Ledecká.
HEAD proposed Gmeiner would service Pinturault’s slalom and giant slalom skis and Krause would handle the super-G and downhills. The plan was brilliant; it would be a job with a sensible amount of work for each serviceman with an athlete whose skiing performance often validates the effort. The project succeeded. Together the trio produced three 2023 World Cup podiums, two giant slaloms (Gmeiner), and one super-G (Krause). Additionally, they achieved a World Championship super-G bronze (Krause) and an Alpine Combined World Championship gold (all three amigos).
Next season, Krause’s role will be increased and Gmeiner’s role will be reduced. Pinturault doesn’t plan to race slalom and is instead adding downhill to his World Cup program.
Krause has proven to be among the best ski servicemen in the sport’s history. To accomplish the level he has achieved required decades of dedication. His endless pursuit of excellence and attention to every detail are among his best traits. He diligently pursues details few would even consider. If you ever have the privilege of watching him work, it will bring new meaning to consistency and determination.
When this article was written, Krause was in Santa Caterina, Italy, helping with HEAD’s ski testing. However, he will soon return to the US for his yearly vacation. This time it will be fishing with a friend.
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