Christopher Hedquist

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Christopher Hedquist (born June 4, 1980) is an American skeleton racer who competed from 2002 to 2007. Chris was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah and graduated from Olympus high school in 1998 and Brigham Young University in 2005. Chris started competing on ice in the sport of luge at age twelve. At age 17 he raced in the 1998 Olympic trials for the U.S. National Luge team. In December 2002, he made his international debut in skeleton at the North American Championships in Park City placing ninth. Shortly afterwards, he was vice-champion at the U.S. junior championships behind Caleb Smith and the top U.S. finisher at the Junior World Championships 2003 in Königssee where he placed fourth. In February 2003 he won the bronze medal at the U.S. National Championships.

In his second season, he finished with a bronze medal during his skeleton European debut in Altenberg, followed with two silver medals at Calgary in the America's Cup behind Zach Lund. In addition, he was the overall European Cup Champion in the 2003/04 season, becoming the first American to ever to win the overall cup.In November 2004, Hedquist won his first gold medal at the America's Cup race in Calgary followed by another gold at he European Cup race in Igls.

In January 2005 he continued his success by winning gold at the winter World University Games in Innsbruck, Austria. He started the 2005-2006 season with four wins in America's Cup races in a row and in January 2006, made his Skeleton World Cup debut placing 15th in Altenberg. The qualification for the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin just missed Hedquist where he was named an alternate to the team following the doping scandal of teammate Zach Lund^[1]. Since the 2006/07 season he starts regularly in the World Cup. The best result so far was a fifth place in December 2006 in Lake Placid. Within the overall World Cup, he's ranked seventh. In 2007, he joined in his first FIBT World Championships in St.Moritz, Switzerland where he placed twentieth.

Career highlights include 2004 overall European Cup Champion, 2005 World Universiade Champion, 2nd overall 2005 America's Cup, 3rd overall 2006 America's Cup. Ranked 7th overall 2006-2007 World Cup Season. His best Skeleton World Cup finish was fifth at Lake Placid in December 2006. Hedquist's best finish at the FIBT World Championships was 20th in the men's event at St. Moritz in 2007.