Ski Racing Olympians
January 17th, 2010Posted in Skiing Everywhere
Thursday night it was standing room only at the Wort Hotel in Jackson when the Jackson Hole Historical Association hosted an evening with Pepi Stiegler and Tommy Moe reminiscing about their lives as skiers and Olympic champions. Both men succeeded in landing jobs in Jackson many years ago because they were Olympic champions, but neither let the fleeting fame of Olympic gold go the their heads. Both seem to have given more to their new home communities than they have taken and are widely admired and loved as neighbors, as was testified to by he big and enthusiastic crowd at the Wort.
I enjoyed seeing some old movies of Pepi skiing at Jackson the first year the resort was open, a year when the Tram had not been completed yet. Life must have been tough for Pepi and the other instructors and patrollers, nothing to do all day except ski powder since there were virtually no customers.
Pepi revealed that he was almost an accidental Olympian the year he won his first Olympic metal. A week before the race he wasn’t even on the Austrian ski team! The Austrians couldn’t seem to make up their minds about who would be the fourth and final member of their team. A group of enthusiastic supporters of Pepi from his hometown of Lienz stepped in and did some fierce lobbying on Pepi’s behalf and managed to secure him the coveted fourth stop. He said the confidence these people showed in him inspired him and gave him the confidence he needed to ski well landing him on the podium.
In the twelve years since Tommy claimed Olympic Gold he’s grown to love Jackson and even Snow King, a hill that appeared so steep to him the first time he raced there as a thirteen year old boy from Montana that he found himself crying in the starting gate.
Tommy’s Dad was in the audience and Tommy drew a good laugh from everyone when he reminded his Dad that he had told Tommy he was nuts to pay whatever he paid for a lot to build a house on in the Stilson Ranches years ago.
Nobody asked and Pepi didn’t say anything about his daughter Resi and her hard luck with recurring serious injuries that have sidelined her promising racing career the last three years. I wonder if he is still as enthusiastic a supporter of ski racing as a career as he was before all of Resi’s broken bones and torn ligaments?
Pepi did make the point that if you don’t finish on the podium, you are nothing in ski racing. He asked who remembers who came in fourth in any race? Even though a fourth place skier might have raced the best race of his or her life, and might have been only a couple of hundredths of a second behind, nobody cares- or remembers.
I know there are many parents harboring Olympic dreams for their young ski racers, considering what it costs to raise and nurture a ski racer these days, parents might want to consider spending that money in Vegas, the odds of getting a winning payback are probably better in Vegas. The number of broken bones and other body parts is considerably less too. Reminds me of an old Warren Miller quip about how much it costs to buy all the gear needed to be a ski racer compared to the cost of a tennis racket- and which pays off better when you become a champion.
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