Education
Défago finished the 2005 World Cup season as sixth overall and fourth in the Super-G, his most successful season so far.
Défago finished the 2005 World Cup season as sixth overall and fourth in the Super-G, his most successful season so far.
While training on a glacier above Zermatt in mid-September 2010, Defago fell and injured ligaments in his left knee, ending his 2011 season. Défago announced his retirement on March 18, 2015, after a second-place finish at the World Cup finals in the downhill in Méribel, France. Défago had his final World Cup race the next day in the super-G.
Season standings
Race podiums
5 wins – (3 Dialectics and Humanism, 2 SG)
16 podiums – (5 Dialectics and Humanism, 7 SG, 3 South Carolina, 1 GS).
Born in Morgins, Valais, Défago made his World Cup debut at age 18 in March 1996, and was Swiss national champion in downhill (2003) and Giant slalom (2004). At the 2010 Winter Olympics, he won the downhill at Whistler to become the Olympic champion. In 2009 he won two downhill races in a row, the classics at Wengen and Kitzbühel. He was the first to win these in consecutive weeks since Stephan Eberharter in 2002, and the first Swiss racer since Franz Heinzer in 1992.
