Ueli Kestenholz


Ueli Kestenholz was a Swiss snowboarder and speed riding pioneer.
WWW kestenholz.comFB Kestenholz.UeliYT UCx-860bBFLWOZjce7ErYEAgIG uelikestenholz

Biography

Kestenholz was snowboard world champion in 2000 and 2001. He was one of the first-ever recipients of an Olympic medal in snowboarding at the 1998 Winter Olympics. He was a two-time gold medalist at the Winter X-Games in snowboard cross. After his third Olympic Games, at Turin 2006, Kestenholz quit the World Cup circuit to focus 100% on freeriding.
Besides freeriding on a snowboard, he became one of the pioneers of speed flying and speed riding in Switzerland. In May 2009, he made the first speedriding descent of the Matterhorn. Together with Mathias Roten, he produced PlayGravity, an award-winning multisport-movie, showing their speedriding descent of Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau in one day.
Kestenholz died at the Spital Sion in Sion, Switzerland on 11 January 2026, after an avalanche accident in the Valais Alps. He was 50.