Jessica Kilian

Jessica Sheila Deepika Kilian (born December 8, 1981 in Colombo ) is a Swiss skeleton pilot .

Jessica Kilian was born in Sri Lanka and was adopted by a Swiss couple at the age of four weeks. In addition to many other sports, Kilian has been athletics since she was six and developed into one of the greatest sprinting and jumping talents in Switzerland. After she met Gregor Stähli in 2001 , he invited her and two other athletes to trial training. After a fall on the first attempt, Kilian wanted to give up, but was convinced by the then national coach Urs Vescoli to keep trying. After trying for some time to do skeleton and athletics equally, athletics had to give up in favor of skeleton.

After only a short training period, Kilian drove his first races. At the European Skeleton Cup race in Winterberg in December 2002 she was 14th, at the Innsbruck Grand Prix she was sixth and 25th at her first Skeleton World Cup race in Igls . In February 2003 she surprisingly came in sixth at the Junior World Championships in Königssee . A year later she won the bronze medal in Winterberg and was 14th at the subsequent Skeleton World Championship in Koenigssee in 2004 , although she was eighth after the first run. Since the 2006/07 season, Kilian has also achieved good results in the senior division. In the European Cup she was fifth in Igls and sixth in Königssee, in the World Cup she was seventh in the top ten for the first time in Königssee. This race was also the 2007 European Skeleton Championship , where the Swiss woman finished fourth. She also took third place at the Swiss Championships. At the beginning of the next season, Kilian moved up to the Swiss A-team. Due to problems with the right to start for the World Cup, Kilian was initially unable to start in this competition and was twice second in European Cup races.

Kilian is a commercial employee and has been a semi-professional since the 2007/08 season. She is given leave of absence from her employer in the winter months. She starts for the Bob Club Zürichsee and is trained by Snorre Pedersen . She lives in field miles .

Success in athletics

• 1st Swiss Junior Championships 2000 in long jump,
• 1st U-23 Swiss Championships 2001 100 m and 200 m,
• 3rd Elite Swiss Championships 2001 long jump,
• 2nd Elite Swiss Championships 2002 100 m,
• 1st Swiss Indoor Championships 2002 and 2003 long jump / 3rd place 2004

Web links

• Homepage
• Kilian at Sportresult
• Report, interview in view