Andreas Buder (born May 22, 1979 in Scheibbs ) is a former Austrian ski racer . The downhill and super-G specialist is a member of the Göstling ski club and has been a member of the national team of the Austrian Ski Association since 2008 . He became Junior World Champion in downhill in 1998 and achieved three podium places in the World Cup . For health reasons, he ended his career in January 2011.
Buder grew up in Göstling an der Ybbs and joined the local ski club at an early age. He attended the main ski school in Lilienfeld and then the ski trade school in Waidhofen an der Ybbs . After some good placements at the Austrian youth championships, he was accepted into the junior squad of the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV) in 1996 . Right from the start he concentrated largely on the fast downhill and super-G disciplines. In December of the same year he took part in his first three European Cup races, but did not yet get into the points. In February 1997 he first attracted international attention when he reached fourth place in the downhill at the Junior World Championships in Schladming . In the 1997/98 season Buder was often in the European Cup. Already in the first season downhill in Piancavallo he reached fifth place and in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee he also achieved a top 10 result. His first major success came at the 1998 Junior World Championships in Megève , when he secured the downhill title ahead of Italian Matteo Berbenni and American Scott Macartney . As a result, he came to his first World Cup appearance at the season finale in Crans-Montana , where he was 19th in the downhill.
After his first serious injury, Buder could not contest any races during the entire winter of 1998/99. On December 14, 1999, he came back to seventh place in the first European Cup race after his forced break, the Super-G in Obereggen , and another five top 10 results followed in the course of the winter, where he only barely made the podium twice in fourth missed. On January 8, 2000, he was also used in the World Cup descent in Chamonix , which he finished in 28th position and thus won his first World Cup points. In the 2000/01 European Cup season , Lower Austria took second place in the second downhill from Altenmarkt-Zauchensee and third in the downhill from Sestriere . However, there were no further World Cup appearances for the time being. The final breakthrough in the European Cup came in the winter of 2001/02 . On December 20, 2001, he celebrated his first victory in the second downhill run from Saalbach-Hinterglemm , after having finished second the day before. With another victory in the first downhill of Tarvisio and numerous top 10 places, he secured himself for the first time the win of the Downhill European Cup and fifth place in the overall standings. So he had a fixed starting place in the World Cup for the next season and after four years in the European Cup squad he was promoted to the A-squad of the ÖSV. In the first six World Cup descents of the 2002/03 season he drove three times under the fastest 15 and achieved ninth place on the Saslong in Val Gardena as the best result . On January 17th, however, he fell in the first of two runs on the Lauberhorn in Wengen and had to end the season prematurely.
In the 2003/04 season , Buder had to start again in the European Cup. Although he achieved three second places (2 × downhill and 1 × Super-G), as fourth and sixth in the discipline rankings, he missed another fixed starting position for the World Cup. So the next winter he only came to a World Cup run in the downhill from Bormio , in which he finished 16th. In the European Cup he reached second place in the downhill classification with four podium places in the 2004/05 season, with which he secured his return to the World Cup. At the end of winter he was still Austrian champion in Super-G. At the beginning of the 2005/06 World Cup season , Buder was mostly able to classify himself in the points, but top positions were initially missing. This changed after the turn of the year. On January 21st he reached eighth place on the Streif in Kitzbühel and a week later he finished third in the downhill from Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the first time on the podium in the World Cup. So he also got into the selection for the Olympic Winter Games in Turin, but failed in the team's internal qualification. At the end of March he won his second Austrian championship title , this time in the downhill.
In the 2006/07 World Cup season , Buder was among the ten fastest in five runs. His best result was sixth in Val-d'Isère . He also took part in the team's internal qualification for the World Cup in Åre, but could not prevail against his opponents. In the first downhill race of the 2007/08 season , Buder achieved his second podium finish in third in Lake Louise and at the end of December he achieved his best World Cup result with second place in Bormio. However, three weeks later, his career was interrupted for a long time. On January 16, 2008, Buder fell so badly in the second training session for the downhill run in Kitzbühel that he had to be transported away by helicopter. When he fell, he broke the head of his tibia. In December 2008 he announced that due to persistent pain in the 2008/09 season, a comeback is not yet possible. Only at the beginning of the 2009/10 season was Buder back in two European Cup races. On November 28, 2009, he contested his first World Cup race in over 22 months. After the first three World Cup descents were disappointing for Buder, as he could not classify himself in the top 30 and he continued to have problems with his injured knee, he decided to end the season early. In the next winter he tried a comeback again and started on December 18, 2010 in the World Cup descent from Val Gardena, which he finished in 47th place. Due to persistent pain in his right knee, which he had seriously injured three years earlier in a fall in Kitzbühel, Buder announced his retirement from ski racing on January 18, 2011.
He is currently the managing director of the Ötscher lifts.
successes
World cup
12 placements among the top ten, including 3 podium places
Austria
