Chris Del Bosco

Biography

One of the founding members of the ski cross national team, Chris Del Bosco made his Olympic debut at Vancouver 2010, arriving at Cypress Mountain as the just-crowned Winter X Games Champion. He advanced to the four-man Big Final and was sitting in third place as the skiers approached the finish line. Del Bosco tried to make a pass on the penultimate jump, only to go flying through the air and crashing onto his side, hitting his head and shoulder hard. He said afterwards that while third might be alright for some people, he wanted to give 100 per cent for his sport and his country.

Since that fourth-place finish, Del Bosco has excelled on the sport’s biggest stages. After surgery in May 2010 to repair a partial tear in his left patellar tendon, he was crowned FIS World Champion and won silver at the Winter X Games in 2011. The next season he won his second career Winter X Games gold medal. His 2012-13 season had a delayed start after he underwent surgery in November for a separated shoulder suffered in a training crash. He returned in time to compete at the World Cup event in Sochi that served as the Olympic test event and ended up on the podium with a silver medal.

At Sochi 2014 he was eliminated before the quarterfinals. In 2015-16, Del Bosco finished second overall in the ski cross World Cup standings for the fourth time in his career, having previously done so three straight seasons from 2009 to 2011. He underwent another surgery in the spring of 2017 to repair the meniscus in his left knee. In December 2017, he earned his 10^th career World Cup victory and 26^th podium at the World Cup season-opener in Val Thorens, France. At PyeongChang 2018, Del Bosco crashed in his 1/8 final heat after he lost control mid-air over a jump. He suffered four rib fractures, a pulmonary contusion, and a stable pelvis fracture but did not require surgery.

A little more about Chris…

Getting into the Sport: Started skiing at age two… Found that he was a natural at going fast and didn’t have to work that hard to be successful… Making a Change: Over his career he has learned the importance of setting goals and sticking to them… At 17 was stripped of his U.S. national titles in alpine skiing and mountain biking and given a two-year suspension after a positive test for marijuana and GHB; was prompted to become sober in September 2006 after his third DUI in three years and decided to go public with his history so that he couldn’t be accused of hiding anything… A chance encounter in February 2007 led to Del Bosco joining the Canadian ski cross team; Cam Bailey, the CEO of the Canadian Ski Cross Team, was at dinner when his waitress learned what he did; she told him that her husband’s cousin was a ski cross racer… Two weeks later Del Bosco met with then-Canadian head coach Eric Archer, who had been one of Del Bosco’s rivals and knew about his past issues, and gave Del Bosco one last chance to be a success in sport… Outside Interests: Also a professional mountain bike racer who competes in downhill and enduro races during the summer…