CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Chad Fleischer crashed on skis in Kitzbuehel, Austria, early in 1995, and ended up in the hospital with a torn medial collateral ligament in his knee and torn muscles in his leg.

In October, he crashed his truck while trying to get from Va In October, he crashed his truck while trying to get from Vail, Colo., to Denver for a flight to Europe and U.S. Ski Team training sessions, and ended up back on a gurney with cuts and bruises.

On Thursday, the rugged Fleischer crashed the victory party many figured would honor one of the favorites – Kyle Rasmussen and Tommy Moe. He ended up on the podium, with the U.S. Alpine Championship downhill crown.

Fleischer rocketed down the 1.72-mile Narrow Guage course in 1 minute, 23.03 seconds, edging silver medalist Christopher Puckett, of Crested Butte, Colo., by three one-hundredths of a second. Moe, the 1994 Olympic downhill champ, finished third in 1:23.26.

Rasmussen finished in seventh with a time of 1:24.6.

Finicky weather forced postponement of the women’s downhill, which was scheduled to be run before the men’s race. The women, including Olympic silver medalist Picabo Street, will race at 9:30 a.m.today. The men will compete in the Super G at 1:30 p.m.

Fleischer, who at 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds looks like a linebacker on long boards, said he hopes to use the win as a springboard into next year’s World Cup season.

“I’m ready to go next year, both feet in the water, full cannonball,” the 24-year-old said. “I didn’t want this season to end.”

Puckett led the race for a short time, skiing seven spots before Fleischer. But even while watching Moe fall short of his time, he predicted the outcome.

“I feel real proud to be ahead of (Moe),” Puckett said as Fleischer began his run. “But I expect Chad’s probably going to beat me right now. He’s been skiing great all week.”

When Fleischer crossed the finish line, Puckett shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, he beat me by four-tenths the other day (in winning an F.I.S. downhill), so I’m happy.”

Moe who injured his left knee in March 1995, had some difficulty on a steep part of the course, but was happy with his race.

“On the headwall I tried to go really straight and got a little stuck in the soft snow, but it was all right,” he said.

Fleischer’s health problems aren’t the only obstacle he had to overcome in winning his first race in three years. He says his skiing future was in jeopardy for years, due to a lack of maturity on his part.

The coaches of his first ski club in Colorado wouldn’t let him try the downhill for two years. “I was too dangerous,” he says.

And six years ago, his work ethic was questioned by national team coaches. “I used to be young and reckless and wild,” he said. “I was actually told by a couple of coaches on the (U.S.) Ski Team it would be a cold day in hell before I ever skiied with them. I was just a little menace, for a while there.

“I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. If I wanted to go free skiing and didn’t want to train, or I waned to play video games instead of inspect (the course), I did.”

Three years ago, he said he decided he wanted to make skiing a career, whether as a racer or in some other capacity.

But while he got in trouble for running wild during his younger years, Fleischer said the breakthrough win Thursday was a result of again letting his body do what it was capable of doing.

“I was thinking so much about where my hips were, where my hands were; I was thinking too much instead of just leting go,” he said.

And after ending up in hospital beds on two continents in the last year, he knows what scares him and what doesn’t.

“(After the car crash) I woke up upside down, bleeding out of my head,” Fleischer said. “I’d rather crash on the downhill any day than have metal and glass breaking all around me.”