Olympian Clark to retire from competitive skiing

PORTLAND, Maine — Three-time Olympian Kirsten Clark, the only skier to win four consecutive U.S. downhill titles, will retire after this month's Alpine championships.

The 29-year-old skier, who won downhill titles from 1998-01, plans to complete her 13-year career at the U.S. Alpine Championships, which begin March 27 in Girdwood, Alaska.

"Thirteen years is a long time, and my body and my mind are telling me so," she said Monday.

In 2004, Clark had a serious crash in Austria, then overcame medical difficulties last season and finished this year's World Cup season with another spill.

Clark was a silver medalist in the super-G at the 2003 world championships. The following year, her career nearly ended after she broke her wrist and tore ligaments in both knees during a crash in Haus, Austria.

Her World Cup season ended with a crash at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, where she won the downhill in 2001. She competed at the Olympics in 1998 (Nagano, Japan) 2002 (Salt Lake City) and 2006 (Turin, Italy).

Clark said she considered retiring last year, but wanted to do so on her terms - not because of illness or injury. She wants to finish on a high note.

"I'm going to ski this coming weekend and see how my body feels, physically, because of the crash that I had in Lenzerheide," she said. "I would definitely like to go to the nationals and be able to race my last race."

Clark started skiing at age 3 at Sugarloaf and began competing at age 7. She attended Carrabassett Valley Academy, a ski school near Sugarloaf that also produced another big-time skier, former World Cup champ Bode Miller.

Her parents tried to dissuade her from joining the U.S. team at 17. After she persisted, they lectured her about not letting big-time racing change her.

"She's still the same person she was," said her father, George Clark.

Her mother, Joan, added: "She's grounded."

After the Alaska race, Clark plans to return to Squaw, Calif., where she lives with her husband, Andreas Rickenbach, a former World Cup racer.

She said she'll return to Maine for a conditioning camp at Carrabassett Valley this summer and she'd consider coaching part time. Once she settles down, she and her husband hope to start a family, she said.