Christian Geiger

Christian Geiger (born 29 March 1988) is an Australian Alpine skier, Paralympic alpine ski coach and sighted guide for visually impaired skiers. He was Jessica Gallagher's guide skier at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, winning a bronze medal. He represented Australia at the 2008 World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships and the 2009 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, but his career was cut short when he was severely injured in a traffic collision in 2009. He became Jessica Gallagher's sighted guide in 2013, and guided her to silver medals in women's slalom and giant slalom at the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup in Thredbo. Geiger was Melissa Perrine's guide and coach at the 2018 Winter Paralympics where she won two bronze medals.

Christian Geiger
Christian Geiger and Jessica Gallagher in December 2013. The microphones allow them to communicate with each other.
Personal information
Full nameChristian Geiger
Nationality Australia
Born (1988-03-29) 29 March 1988
St Leonards, New South Wales
Sport
CountryAustralia
SportPara-alpine skiing
Event(s)Downhill
Super-G
Giant Slalom
Slalom
Super Combined
Medal record
Guide for women's para-alpine skiing
Winter Paralympic Games
2014 SochiGiant slalom visually impaired
2018 PyeongchangSuper combined visually impaired
2018 PyeongchangGiant slalom visually impaired

Personal

Geiger was born on 29 March 1988 in St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia,[1][2] but lived in Austria until he was eight.[2] On 26 September 2009, he was involved in a car crash. The vehicle he was travelling in as a passenger slammed into a tree just 30 metres (98 ft) from his family's home in Bright, Victoria.[2][3] He suffered severe injuries to his arm, spleen and liver as well as serious brain trauma.[2][3] As a result, he was in an induced coma for a week. It took months before he could walk, talk and eat independently again.[2] As of August 2011, he had ten operations, extensive physiotherapy and speech therapy.[3]

Skiing

Geiger began skiing at the age of two in Austria,[2] and made the national team in 2006.[4] He won numerous Australian Championships during his teenage years, and represented Australia at the 2008 World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships and the 2009 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.[2] This changed after his 2009 accident. "I tried to get back to able bodied [competition] but couldn't quite get back to where I was, let alone where I wanted to go," he later explained, "so I had to hang it up."[4]

In 2013, Australian Paralympic Alpine Head Coach Steve Graham asked Geiger to replace Eric Bickerton as Jessica Gallagher's sighted guide.[5] In their first competition, the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup in Thredbo, New South Wales, he guided Gallagher to silver medals in women's slalom and giant slalom.[6]

Gallagher gave an insight on taking on Geiger as a guide. She said:

Every run that we are spending together at the moment, Christian is learning new things about the way that I ski, about the things that I need to be told when I'm going down the hill in terms of the things that I'm not seeing and also the things that may throw me and really test me as an athlete because at the end of the day his role as a guide is to get me down to the bottom as fast as possible, but also as safe as possible. It just happens with time really.[5]

Geiger was guide to Gallagher at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi,[7] where they won a bronze medal in the women's giant slalom visually impaired event. They came seventh in the women's slalom visually impaired.[8] In 2015, he was Head Coach of Australia’s Para-Alpine Skiing program.[9]

Following Gallagher's move to para-cycling, Geiger became sighted guide to Melissa Perrine.[1] At the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, Geiger guided Perrine to bronze medal wins in the women's super combined and giant slalom visually impaired events. The pair also placed fourth in the slalom and fifth in the downhill and super-G visually impaired.[10]

In November 2018, Geiger won the New South Wales Institute of Sport 7News Spirit of Sport Award, as voted by the public, for his act of generosity in flying Perrine’s family to PyeongChang, allowing them to watch her compete at the Winter Paralympics.[11]

At the 2019 Australian Ski and Snowboard Awards, Geiger with Ryan Pearl was named Coach of the Year (Paralympic disciplines).[12]

References
  1. "Christian Geiger". Athlete's profile. Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  2. "Christian Geiger". Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  3. Reed, Ron (22 August 2011). "He's back on track" (PDF). Herald Sun. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  4. Homefray, Reece (11 March 2014). "Skier Jess Gallagher a major medal hope for Australia at Winter Paralympic Games". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  5. Paxinos, Stathi (1 September 2013). "Gallager leaves sun for snow". The Age. Archived from the original on 16 February 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  6. "Racing cancelled on final day on World Cup". Australian Paralympic Committee. 5 September 2013. Archived from the original on 8 February 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  7. McDonald, Margie (4 February 2014). "Paralympians put energy into alpine skiing for Sochi". The Australian. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  8. "Sochi 2014 Latest Results". Australian Paralympic Committee. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  9. "Australia's para-alpine in good hands". Australian Paralympic Committee News, 18 December 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  10. "Melissa Perrine". Athlete's profile. PyeongChang 2018. Archived from the original on 10 March 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  11. "NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) Awards celebrate the best of 2018". New South Wales Institute of Sport website. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  12. "Australian snowsport stars shine at 2019 Australian Ski and Snowboard Awards". Ski and Snowboard Australia website. 1 May 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
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