Bud Marolt - Olympian, Hall of Famer

Bud Marolt, an Olympian and member of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, passed away January 21, 2025. He was 92.

The eldest of a trio of Marolt brothers, he grew up in Aspen, Colorado, and became an accomplished ski racer, winning the 1950 Rocky Mountain downhill, slalom and combined championships and forerunning the 1950 FIS World Championships in Aspen. He was a member of the U.S. Ski Team and was named to the 1952 U.S. Olympic team. Marolt served in the U. S. Army as a mountaineering and ski instructor at Colorado’s Camp Hale. 

Under Gordy Wren at Colorado’s Loveland Ski Area in the early 1960s, Marolt became the ski school supervisor and, later, director. He created Loveland’s youth programs, which brought 2,500 kids from Denver to ski each winter. Marolt also founded the Loveland Basin Ski Club and established the Loveland Derby, one of the oldest amateur ski races in the U.S. Marolt was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2015 in the sport builder category.