Helping to build an orphanage in Kenya for children whose parents died of AIDS might seem like an unusual cause for a former World Cup downhiller to embrace, but Chad Fleischer always did have a flair for the dramatic.
This is a guy who once bowed like a symphony conductor to a crowd of 50,000-plus in Kitzbuehel after performing a spectacular crash less than 100 meters from the finish line. His memorable ad-lib came moments after he did an inadvertent backflip off a jump at about 80 mph that drove his femur into his hip joint, tore a knee ligament, caused his skis to disintegrate and probably cost him a podium spot in the world’s most prestigious downhill.
A racer from Nebraska via Ski Club Vail, Fleischer came within .27 of a second of claiming a medal in his hometown at the 1999 world championships and once finished second in a World Cup downhill.
Fleischer went to Kenya for two weeks last October to help build an orphanage funded by Alpine Initiatives (www.alpineinitiatives.org), a humanitarian organization he is promoting along with free-skiing legend J.P. Auclair, ski mountaineer Seth Koch and heli-guide Mikey Hovey.
“I got involved because in skiing and riding, there aren’t a lot of individuals who have gone out and really tried to create a cause for the sake of humanity,” Fleischer said. “Skiing and riding, unfortunately, is a selfish community in a lot of ways. Mainly it’s about catching the biggest and best storm and the fattest powder line before someone else poaches it.”
Fleischer spoke last week from Crescent, Iowa, where he was helping a pyrotechnician wire fireworks for a New Year’s Eve celebration at his brother’s tiny ski area.
“We can make a difference,” Fleischer said of Alpine Initiatives. “It’s a challenge to the skiing and riding community to get behind what we feel is a great cause.”
Fleischer didn’t take the celebrity approach, smiling for cameras without getting his hands dirty. Fleischer and the others paid for their airfare and lodging. They worked beside the Kenyans to build the Amani (peace in Swahili) Community Home, which will allow orphans to remain in their village instead of getting shipped to big-city orphanages.
“I’ve traveled all over the world for the better half of my life, but it was either for vacation or sport,” said Fleischer, who lives in Steamboat Springs. “This was the first time I went somewhere on a humanitarian mission. It really opens up your eyes. It allows you to understand and socialize and be embedded in a community. It was so rewarding.”
Fleischer doesn’t drink bottled water anymore, not after watching poor Kenyans fill their water containers from mud puddles rather than walk 2 miles for water and carry it home on their heads. He watched villagers chisel rocks into building blocks, using tools affluent Americans would throw away.
He was deeply touched by the orphans he met.
“These kids just wanted to be loved, wanted to be held,” Fleischer said. “I had two kids wrapped around my legs, one kid in each arm, and there were two more that wanted me. I have two kids at home (age 3 and 9 months), and that to me was just heart-wrenching.”
Seven years after a bad crash at Wengen, Switzerland, effectively ended his career just days before the 2002 Olympics, Fleischer still misses the thrill of throwing his body down the world’s classic downhills. But he loves powder days at Steamboat and enjoyed helping his brother last week at Mount Crescent, a 300-foot hill with two chair lifts just minutes from Omaha.
“We laugh all the time, we call it ‘the resort,’ ” Fleischer said via cellphone, his teeth chattering from setting up fireworks in bitter cold. “Being from Colorado, it’s easy to forget you don’t need the Bogner or the Prada ski suit. The people here are beginners. If there’s a long lift line and they miss three chairs trying to get on the lift, no one is screaming at them. They’re here because it truly is the heart and soul of the sport.”
