Born in
Le Pâquier, Neuchâtel, he competed in the
downhill and
super-G, along with the
giant slalom. He won the World Cup downhill and super-G title for the
2011 season and has won three previous downhill titles in
2010,
2008 and
2007, along with a giant slalom title in
2009. Cuche has 21 World Cup race victories, along with 67 podiums (top three) and 181 top ten finishes. He is also an Olympic silver medalist and has won a total of four
World Championships medals (a gold, two silvers, and a bronze). He retired from competition following the
2012 season. At the
1998 Winter Olympics in
Nagano, Japan, Cuche was the silver medalist in the
super-G, where he had exactly the same time as
Hans Knauss resulting in a rare sharing of the medal (no bronze medal was awarded). Cuche switched from
Atomic to
Head skis following the
2006 season, joining
Bode Miller and
Hermann Maier. During the
2007 season, Cuche was in top form, winning the downhill season title with a victory and four-second-place finishes. In the
Bormio downhill on 28 December 2006 he finished second, 0.01 seconds behind winner
Michael Walchhofer, the smallest measurable amount in ski racing. Cuche repeated as the World Cup downhill season champion in
2008 with 584 points, five ahead of overall champion
Bode Miller. Cuche finished third overall and nearly won the super-G season title, finishing a single point behind champion
Hannes Reichelt. At the
2009 World Championships in
Val-d'Isère, France, Cuche won the
super-G and was the silver medalist in the
downhill. A week after winning the super-G and downhill at Kitzbühel in
2010, Cuche broke his right thumb in the giant slalom at
Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, on 29 January, two weeks before the
2010 Winter Olympics. The injury put Cuche's Olympic participation in doubt, and he was immediately flown to Switzerland. After successful thumb surgery, he was cleared to compete in the Olympics in Canada. Cuche had a disappointing Olympics and did not win any medal; however, he regained the title of World Cup downhill champion for the 2010 season at the first post-Olympic race. Cuche won the downhill on the challenging
Olympiabakken course at
Kvitfjell, Norway, on 6 March for his fifth World Cup victory of the season. Until 2010, Cuche had never won more than two World Cup events in a single season. On 22 January 2011, Cuche became the oldest race winner in the history of the
World Cup, winning the
Hahnenkamm downhill in
Kitzbühel at the age of . It was also his fourth downhill victory in Kitzbühel, which tied him with
Franz Klammer for the record on the Hahnenkamm. He has since added a fifth victory in Kitzbühel to his tally, thus becoming the sole record holder; Klammer was there to congratulate him at the finish. At the
2011 World Championships in February, he won the silver medal in the
downhill. In March he won the World Cup downhill championship for the 2011 season. This marked the fourth time he won the season title (2011, 2010, 2008, 2007), a record only surpassed by
Franz Klammer who won the title five times. He ended the 2011 World Cup season in first-place ranking in downhill and super-G, finishing second in the overall rankings to
Ivica Kostelić. After considerable speculation as to whether Cuche might instead retire, he opened the 2012 World Cup season by winning the downhill race at
Lake Louise, Canada, further extending the age record he had last broken at in a super-G at Kvitfjell in March 2011. That record was extended yet again at Kitzbühel in January 2012 to . On 19 January 2012 Cuche announced his retirement for the end of the 2012 season. He gave his retirement speech in Kitzbühel during which he stated that he wanted to "leave the World Cup stage on a high". Only two days later, Cuche won the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel for the fifth time in his career, including his first World Cup win in 1998. In December 2012, the Swiss ski federation announced that Cuche would work with his former teammates as a downhill coach after they suffered a slow start to the season. ==Personal life==