Alex Birkner

Position:
ALPINE
Height:
5-8
Weight:
null
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Logan, Utah
High School:
Sky View
Prev School:
Orsatus France

World University Games Participant (2023 Lake Placid)
NCAA Championships Qualifier (2023)
Four-Time Letterwinner (2020, ‘21, ‘22, ‘23)

At Colorado: Career—Birkner has skied in all 45 possible races in four years for the Buffs and finished 39 of them with 19 top 20 performances, well split with 10 in slalom and nine in GS.

2023 (Senior)—Birkner skied in all 11 possible races for the Buffaloes as a senior, finishing 10 of them with six top 20 performances, four in GS and two in slalom. His best finish of 11th is also his career best finish, in the GS at the UAA Invitational to close out the regular season. He had two top 20s at the CU Invitational in an extra qualifier and first of two GS races as part of the CU meet, then at the end in Alaska, where he put together four top 20s to end his career, inlucing a season best 18th in both slalom races there, the second as part of the RMISA Championships. He also participated at the World University Games in Lake Placid in January and qualified for the NCAA Championships, while also earning his fourth letter.

2022 (Junior)—Birkner skied in all 12 possible races leading up to the NCAA Championships, finishing 10 races on the season with four top 20 performances. Three of his four top 20s came in GS races with a best of 16th in an RMISA Qualifier ahead of the Denver Invitational at Loveland. He also finished 18th in a GS race at the Utah Invitational and 19th in the discipline at the RMISA Championships. In slalom races, his top 20 was a 17th place finish at the Denver Invitational.

2021 (Sophomore)—Birkner had a solid start to his sophomore season by earning or matching his career best performance in the early Colorado series of races at the DU and CU Invitationals. He took 12th to open the season in the first GS race at Aspen as part of the Denver Invitational, the best finish of his career in either discipline. Two days later at Eldora, he took 16th in the first slalom race and 14th in the second to match his career best slalom finish , which he also accomplished in 2020 in Eldora in an RMISA Qualifier race. He continued his solid skiing in the Utah series, matching his career best slalom again at Snowbird in the RMISA Invitational at Westminster before not finishing the second race there. He struggled a bit down the stretch in Utah after that DNF, finishing between 25th and 33rd the remaining four races at the RMISA Invitational at Utah and the RMISA Championships at Park City.

2020 (Freshman)—Birkner finished 11 of 12 races on the season, including each of the last nine, with six top 20 performances, all in the stretch of seven races over the middle to latter part of the season. He finished as the Buffs third finisher three times, earning a letter in his first season. He opened up with a pair of 22nd place GS finishes in Aspen while not finishing the slalom race as part of the DU Invitational, then had his best performance of the season at Eldora, where he took 19th in the GS and 15th in the slalom as part of the CU Invitational and followed that up with a 14th place in the slalom qualifier race there. In Park City, he took 26th in the GS but rebounded to take 17th in the slalom as part of the Utah Invitational and 15th in the slalom qualifier. He extended his streak to six of seven races with a top 20 and first in GS by finishing 20th in the GS qualifier at Bozeman and followed that up with a 29th place GS and 21st place slalom performance at the RMISA Championships.

Club— He has skied for various clubs since 2005, first with Beaver Mountain from 2005-13 then with Rowmark from 2013-14, Cache Valley from 2014-16. He then with Flow International from 2016-18. Finishing with Orsatus in France from 2018-2019 … He has participated in 189 FIS-sanctioned races since 2014, finishing 164 with 95 top 20, 46 top 10 and 19 top five finishes including nine podium appearances and six race wins … He has participated in National Championship races in France, Argentina, Chile, the United States and New Zealand with 18 starts in such races … His best finish at a National Championship was fourth in the Super G in Chile in 2017 … He has two fifth place finishes in National Championships, in the GS in France in 2018 and in the slalom in Argentina in 2017 … He has 35 starts in Continental Cup races, having participated in races in the South American Cup, Nor-Am Cup and Far East Cup circuits … He participated in five RMISA races as an independent student, including the Utah Invitational in 2015 and the Montana State Invitational in 2017.

High School—He graduated from Sky View High School in Smithfield, Utah, in 2017.

In the Classroom—He is majoring in Psychology at Colorado and earning two minors in both Business and Sociology.

Personal—Alexander Thomas Birkner was born October 30, 1998, in Logan, Utah … His parents are Ignacio Birkner and Afrodit Malek and he has three sisters, Sophia, Anna and Sonya … His extended family include nine Olympians and 20 Olympic appearances … Among them Christian Simari Birkner is a five-time Olympian, Macarena Simari Birkner four-time Olympian and Belen Simari Birkner a three-time Olympian … He enjoys cooking and with his mother's Persian and father's Argentinian backgrounds, that led him to cook diverse and interesting meals … He also enjoys mountain biking, rock climbing and anything outdoors … He chose Colorado because he is a "huge fan of the amazing academic programs that will work hand in hand with my passion of alpine skiing."