Toni Sailer

Skier

• Born: November 17, 1935
• Birthplace: Kitzbühel, Austria
• Died: August 24, 2009
• Place of death: Innsbruck, Austria

Sport: Skiing

Early Life

Anton “Toni” Sailer was born on November 17, 1935, in the mountain town of Kitzbühel, snuggled in the western Austrian Alps in the province of Tyrol. International ski races have been held there since 1933. To Tyroleans, snow is as important as fertile earth is to farmers. Everyone in Tyrol skis; Toni had barely learned to walk when his father strapped a pair of skis on the two-year-old. Growing up around his father’s glass shop, Toni slipped away with his skis whenever snow blanketed the mountains around town. Sometimes he even left school to go skiing. His father helped him progress by sticking pine twigs in the slopes to teach Toni slalom control.

The Road to Excellence

Toni improved his skiing at the Kitzbühel Ski Club. He had a younger brother and two older sisters. His sister Rosi skied with Christian Pravda, one of Austria’s greatest ski champions. Through Rosi, Pravda took an interest in Toni.

When Toni turned eleven, he won his first competition and was awarded two sausages. By the time he had turned seventeen, in 1952, he was nearly full-grown at 6 feet tall and 180 pounds. His size and strength helped him in the longer, more grueling races.

With Pravda’s help, Toni developed a style of skiing called wedeln, or tail-wiggling, that became the international norm. In the style, skis are kept parallel and close together, arms and hands are held close to the body, and turns are made by swinging the hips. Toni combined a near-perfect execution of this technique with an uncanny ability to pick the fastest, though not always the shortest, route to the finish line.

In the winter of 1952, Toni won the Grand Prix of Megève in France by taking the downhill, slalom, and giant slalom events. When Pravda won two gold medals at the 1952 Winter Olympics, Toni set his sights on the 1956 Games. He appeared to be well on his way when tragedy struck on the slopes: Toni was seriously injured and unable to compete for two seasons. However, the injury spurred Toni. He trained seven days a week at the Kitzbühel club, his diet including a curious breakfast mixture of milk, honey, and sugar. Upon his return to the slopes in 1955, he skied better than anyone expected.

The Emerging Champion

Back on the circuit, Toni picked up where he had left off, again winning the Grand Prix of Megève. He then swept his first of four consecutive Lauberhorn downhill and combined titles. By the time of the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Toni so dominated that skiers refer to the mid-1950’s as the “Sailer era.”

The slalom was the first of the three alpine skiing events at the Olympics, and Toni’s teammate, Anderl Molterer, initially had the best run of the day: 3 minutes, 6.3 seconds. Molterer’s time was good, but Toni’s run was simply spectacular. Toni came flying down the mountain, crossing the finish line in an incomparable 3 minutes and .1 second. The crowd spilled forth and carried its brilliant hero away.

Toni was equally impressive in the giant slalom, winning that event by a full 4 seconds. The town was abuzz before the downhill competition, as no Olympic skier had ever won gold medals in all three alpine events.

The 2-mile-long downhill course was exceedingly treacherous and icy. Rocks and bare spots scarred the mountain, which had more than three thousand feet of vertical drop. The course was so difficult that more than one-third of the seventy-five competitors did not even finish the race. Toni hit a bump near the top of the run, haphazardly flew 30 feet in the air, but kept his balance and careened across the finish line to win by 3.5 seconds. Toni’s Olympic sweep of all three alpine events was unprecedented. When the Games were over, Toni had won more gold medals on his own than had the entire U.S. team.

Continuing the Story

To celebrate Toni’s triple victories, the Austrian government awarded him its highest honor, the Golden Cross of Merit. A hero to all of Europe, Toni received thousands of fan letters and dozens of offers to coach ski clubs.

Toni quickly became a star in more than just skiing. After winning two of three events in the 1958 Alpine World Ski Championships, he appeared in a movie that jeopardized his amateur status. Because Toni also began promoting “Sailer-Tex” skiwear fabrics, he voluntarily declared himself a professional and retired from ski competition when he was just twenty-five and in his prime.

Toni began making money in business as fast as he often crossed the finish line as an amateur skier. His good looks brought him movie parts and recording contracts, and he wrote an autobiography, Mein Weg zum dreifachen Olympiasieg (1956; My Way to the Triple Olympic Victory, 1956). With Sailer-Tex sales doing well, he opened a hotel in Kitzbühel, then marketed a new type of plastic ski. He later coached the Austrian ski team to a successful showing in the 1976 Winter Olympic Games. His three gold medals had turned into a gold mine.

Summary

Although the Soviet team won the most medals in the 1956 Winter Olympics, what is most remembered is Toni Sailer’s triple-gold-medal performance. Not often do athletes retire from sports while at their peak. Toni personified individual excellence and the will to succeed, both on and off the mountain.

Bibliography

Fry, John. The Story of Modern Skiing. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2006.

Sailer, Toni. My Way to the Triple Olympic Victory. Salzburg, Austria: Das Bergland-Buch, 1956.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Ski with Toni Sailer. New York: Sterling, 1964.

Wallechinsky, David, and Jaime Loucky. The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics. Wilmington, Del.: Sport Media, 2005.