‘War Horse’ carves new life in Lake Placid

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. >> Andrew Weibrecht steers his pickup truck off the main drag of the Olympic village where he grew up and heads down a narrow, wooded dirt road to water’s edge, grabs a fishing pole and gazes out at windswept Lake Placid, Whiteface Mountain looming in the distance like a giant sentinel. Home again. “I love time in the woods so much, whether it’s going out canoeing, hiking, or just bushwhacking around with my dog,” said the two-time Olympic medalist in Alpine skiing. “Whatever I’m do- ing in the woods ... just really centers me. It’s why I love living here. To be able to walk out the door and be out in it is pretty special.”

The man who earned the nickname “War Horse” for his unbridled fury in attacking a course — he blew out each ankle and had surgery on both shoulders and a knee in his careerwith the U.S. ski team — announced his retirement in May after nearly three decades of competitive skiing. The transition from the frenetic pace of the ski season into the role of husband to wife Denja and father to his two young daughters has been seamless.

“It’s been really good. I was ready to move on to different things,” said Weibrecht, who will be inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum in April. “I think in that respect I’ve been really lucky because not everybody has that luxury where they’re ready to do something different. Being able to spend as much time as I have with my family ... has been a treat.

“It came down to two things,” Weibrecht added. “My body took a serious hit the last couple of years. It’s not that I probably couldn’t have gone through it physically, but it just doesn’t really make sense to me. The other part is we had another daughter. Once we had our first daughter, it was definitely a different situation with me being on the road and knowing what I went through and what I missed. I really didn’t want to do that a second time.”

That he made the right decision at the age of 32 to walk away from the sport he’s loved since he was a toddler is evident to those who know him best.

“I think this is the happiest I’ve seen him in a long time,” said his mom, Lisa. “It’s really interesting.”

Weibrecht’s career on the slopes was unique. Before he earned a spot on a World Cup podium for the first time, he already had won Olympic bronze, at the 2010 Vancou- ver Games, and silver, at Sochi in 2014 , both in super-G.

JOHN KEKIS—ASSOCIATED PRESS In this Sept. 1, 2018, photo, Andrew Weibrecht, aka “War Horse,” pilots his boat on Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The twotime Olympic medalist in downhill skiing retired in May at age 32to spend more time with his young family and learn the family business. His parents operate the Mirror Lake Inn, one of the signature resorts in the East.