Chris
Klebl

Sit-skier Chris Klebl made his fourth career appearance at the Paralympic Winter Games in 2018 and won his second medal with a silver in the cross country mixed relay.

Klebl’s international adventures have led him to Canada where he has become one of the country’s top Para Nordic skiers. That was confirmed in the 2013-14 season as he earned an upset victory in the 10 kilometre event, one of his four races at the Sochi Paralympic Games. Among his victims was Roman Petushkov of Russia who was vying for his seventh gold medal of the Games. It was Klebl’s first Games medal in three appearances.

In 2017, Klebl missed the world championships due to an illness as he was hospitalized due to a skin problem. Just two years earlier, at the 2015 worlds, Klebl posted three top-five finishes and is hopeful he can return to top form for the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

Klebl was born in Dusseldorf, Germany as a U.S. citizen and grew up in Austria. He headed to the U.S. in 1987. Klebl was on the American Para Nordic team at the 2006 and 2010 Paralympic Games.

He suffered the back injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down in a snowboarding accident in Colorado in 1995. He moved north to Canmore, Alta., to join the Canadian national team for the 2011 world championship at which he took the world crown in the 15-kilometre and silver in the sprint. The following season, Klebl racked up six World Cup medals to leave no doubt he would be a serious medal contender heading into Sochi 2014.

At the World Cup in Cable, Wisconsin in January, 2012, Klebl won the silver medal in the 15-kilometre, four months after breaking his leg.

In six years with the U.S. team, the University of Syracuse economics graduate earned more than a dozen World Cup medals as well as 11 U.S. national titles.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

2018 – silver medal in mixed relay in cross country skiing at Paralympic Games… Competed at two Paralympic Games for the U.S. (2006 and 2010) and one for Canada (2014)…

PERSONAL

Klebl grew up in Austria… He was also a runner and rower in high school… a broken wrist hampered his chances to make the U.S. National Junior Rowing Team… worked as a massage therapist in Hawaii and the software industry in California… was initially in hand-cycling after his injury before a friend suggested sit-skiing… three months later he competed at his first World Cup.

NOTABLE INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

• 2018 Paralympic Winter Games – 4X2.5 km mixed relay cross country – 2nd
• 2018 Paralympic Winter Games – 7.5 km cross country – 6th
• 2018 Paralympic Winter Games – 15 km – 8th
• 2015 Para-Nordic World Championships – 4×2.5 km relay – 4th
• 2015 Para-Nordic World Championships – 15 km – 4th>
• 2015 Para-Nordic World Championships – 10 km – 5th
• 2014 Paralympic Winter Games – 10 km – 1st
• 2014 Paralympic Winter Games – 4×2.5 km relay – 10th
• 2014 Paralympic Winter Games – 1 km – 5th
• 2014 Paralympic Winter Games – 15km – 6th>
• 2013 Para-Nordic World Championships – 4×2.5 km relay – 7th
• 2011 Para-Nordic World Championships – 15 km – 1st
• 2011 Para-Nordic World Championships – 1 km – 2nd
• 2010 Paralympic Winter Games – 15 km – 8th
• 2009 Para-Nordic World Championships – 15 km – 4th
• 2006 Paralympic Winter Games – 15 km -11th
• 2006 Paralympic Winter Games – 10km – 18th
• 2006 Paralympic Winter Games –25 km – 23rd