Feature article

Organized sport excluded "non-Aryans" long before the Anschluss.

During the 1880s in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, an ethnic-racist worldview began spreading on the right-wing edge of the German-national movement. It postulated a supposed superiority of the “Germanic race.” The movement agitated for secession of the empire’s German-speaking regions and their subsequent unification into Germany.

Photo above: The ski team of the Dornbirn gymnastics club parades to the Turngau ski race on the Bodele, March 6, 1938. Stadtarchiv Dornbirn photo.

This radical form of pan-Germanism was driven by anti-Slavism and anti-Semitism. It brought together conservative Catholics, socialists and German nationalists of the extreme political right and shaped the political climate of both the First Austrian Republic (founded 1919) and the Austrofascist Fatherland Front, which took power in 1934 under Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss.

The ÖSV (Austrian Ski Federation), founded in 1905, identified with this national-ethnic tradition and made racist club policy the top priority well before the establishment of the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany in 1933 and the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938.

German Nationalism and Anti-Semitism

Alongside gymnastics and mountaineering, skiing was one of the first fields in which National Socialism gained a foothold in Austria. Within the ÖSV, German nationalism and, eventually, National Socialism became increasingly evident from the 1920s onward. Therefore, the Nazi takeover of skiing did not happen suddenly in March 1938 but was rather a gradual process over decades. In the German-national gymnastic movement, an anti-Semitic policy of exclusion can be traced back to the late 19th century. After World War I, this policy picked up speed in German-national sport clubs, especially in Alpine and other ski clubs of the First Austrian Republic. These associations and their members were subsequently receptive to the National Socialist racial ideology.

As in the German Turnverein (gymnastic association) and Alpenverein (Alpine club), German nationalism was the common denominator within the ÖSV, which adopted policies in the 1920s that eventually resulted in radical anti-Semitism. Long before 1938, the ÖSV excluded Jewish skiers and conformed to the “Aryan ideal” propagated by National Socialism.

The loss of World War I, the dismemberment of the empire and establishment of the First Republic deprived large portions of the Austrian population of national pride. At that point, the ÖSV saw itself as the legal association in which all “German ski clubs of the former monarchy” were to be combined. But with the conclusion of the peace treaties in 1919–20, ÖSV recognized that this was no longer possible.

With the political reorganization of Europe, the ÖSV lost German member clubs in Bohemia, Moravia, what is now Slovenia, South Tyrol and the Carpathians.

The losses were compensated by a turn to an even stronger German-national and ethnic association policy. Ethnic-minded representatives in ÖSV member clubs from Vienna to Vorarlberg not only saw the Alps as an ideal world but also understood them as German terrain.

The aim was to establish a German national hegemony in Alpine sports. That supremacy should be achieved through a political and symbolic occupation of the natural area as well as the exclusion of “non-Aryan” members.

As did other associations, the ÖSV conflated Alpinism with nationalism, and in 1923 adopted into its articles of association the Arierparagraph (Aryan paragraph), boilerplate legal language excluding Jews and Slavs. Thus, a zero-tolerance policy was developed toward anyone not of German descent.

Exclusion Policy and the Split-Up

This occurred 10 years before Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists came to power in Germany. Before adopting the Arierparagraph, in 1921 ÖSV privately asked all member clubs to submit a binding declaration. In February 1923, to underscore its pan-German goals, ÖSV chose the German national ski championships in Bad Gastein as the moment to publicly propose the amendment of its statutes. The final decision was made at a meeting of representatives on October 6 and 7, 1923, in Bad Ischl. The motion to amend the articles of association was accepted, with a clear majority of 675 to 174 votes.

Dissenting members soon split off to establish the General Austrian Ski Federation (Allgemeiner Österreichischer Skiverband, or AÖSV). AÖSV presented its own sport program and held championship competitions, open to all Austrian citizens regardless of ethnic background. The new association saw itself as apolitical and had an international focus. In the more tolerant association, the Jewish sports club Hakoah (established in 1909) and its skiers found a new home.

The exclusion of Jews led to controversy within international organizations. Nonetheless ÖSV remained the official national representative of Austrian skiing and, therefore, was economically and politically more powerful than AÖSV. In 1937, ÖSV had a network of 360 ski clubs across Austria, whereas AÖSV membership was heavily concentrated in eastern Austria, especially in and near Vienna.

Illegal Stormtroopers and Border Crossers

Even before the Anschluss, Austrian skiers represented Germany in national and international competitions. Athletes took part in National Socialist training courses and helped to shape SA and SS stormtrooper sports programs. Austrian ski instructors served the Nazi sports system, just as Austrian sports officials were entrusted with Nazi sports-political offices even before 1938.

Active athletes such as the Austrian ski jumper Josef Bradl, the first to exceed 100 meters, and downhill skier Andreas Krallinger, were organized into paramilitary associations such as the SA (Sturmabteilung, or assault division) before 1938, despite the illegality of all Austrian Nazi groups (NSDAP) under the Fatherland Front government. Other sports comrades were members of the SS (Schutzstaffel, or protective squadron). Born in December 1914, Krallinger joined the SA, at age 22, in 1936. At the same time, Bradl joined the SA in Salzburg. Bradl, 19, was then arrested for SA activities in the summer of 1937. In a letter to Salzburg Governor Franz Rehrl, written from his prison cell, the ski jumper protests his innocence. His athletic potential led to his release from custody a few months later, in time to compete in early 1938. He later became one of the most celebrated Nazi sports heroes, preparing Hitler Youth on skis for war.

Bradl’s sporting home from 1936 onward was the Skiclub Salzburg, where committed Nazis (and brothers) Hermann and Siegfried Amanshauser had leading positions. Hermann Amanshauser joined the NSDAP in May 1933 and applied for membership in the SS in 1934. As money manager of two SS units, he organized the repatriation of imprisoned National Socialists from the Austrofascist internment camp in Wöllersdorf. He was promoted to SS-Sturmmann (soldier) on December 1, 1934, and to SS-Scharführer (squad leader) on March 1, 1935. Even before the Anschluss, Amanshauser was promoted to Hauptscharführer (master sergeant), according to the SS master card transcript. He also wrote theoretical books on Alpine skiing, such as The Wonder in White (1929) and Alpine Skiing Technique (1933).

He belonged to the Alpine Club (Alpenverein) and was responsible for training the youth there. His brother Siegfried joined the NSDAP in 1932 and the SS in 1937.

From the 1930s on, and increasingly after Hitler’s takeover in Germany in 1933, demonstrations of support for National Socialism in Austrian ski circles accumulated. Especially in the run-up to the failed July Putsch in 1934, in which Chancellor Dollfuss was killed by Nazis, National Socialist demonstrations at competitions and skiing events increased. In Kitzbühel, the Hahnenkamm race, launched in 1931, was canceled in 1933 and 1934 because of domestic unrest. At the Tyrolean ski championships in Hall on January 14, 1934, members of the Ski Club Innsbruck demonstrated for the German Nazi regime during the ski jump event.

Among the supporters was downhill skier Hellmut Lantschner, who primarily worked as a ski instructor in Italy. Lantschner joined the SA in 1932 and, after the incident in Hall, was on the run from the Austrian authorities. He escaped to the German Reich and joined the Österreichische Legion (Austrian Legion), then participated with other former Tyrolians at the SA championships.

In 1939 Lantschner won the world downhill championship, skiing for greater Germany. Meanwhile his cousin Gustav “Guzzi” Lantschner, a member of the SS who crossed into Germany in 1935, won the Alpine combined silver medal at the Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936. (At the time he was also working as a cameraman for Leni Riefenstahl.)

In this way, Austrian skiing, organized through ÖSV, integrated effortlessly into the Nazi regime from the very beginning. Most activists were long-serving party comrades or at least sympathizers of the greater Germany idea (Großdeutschland). The incorporation of Austrian skiing into the German Reich was, for most skiers, not perceived as a break. With the outbreak of WWII in September 1939 and Hitler’s war of extermination, this had fatal consequences.

Austrian Skiers in the Service of the SS: A Murderous Elite

According to SS leader Heinrich Himmler, the SS started to build up sports clubs (SS-Sportgemeinschaften, SS-SG) throughout the German Reich from 1935. By 1939, competition squads had been formed in various sports in 37 cities. Several well-known Austrian skiers had found their way into the SS sport of the German Reich. Beside the Lantschners, Walter Pesentheiner escaped as an illegal member of the NSDAP and SA Germany in 1934 and joined German SS officer Willy Bogner Sr., as a member of the SS-Oberabschnitt Süd in Munich—the oldest division of the SS, commanded by Rudolf Hess. After the Anschluss and until the outbreak of WWII, the number of Austrian SS skiers increased significantly.

One of the most successful SS-Sportgemeinschaft in skiing before the war was SS-SG Innsbruck, created by SS-Reichsführer Kurt Christmann, head of the Gestapo Innsbruck. Under his command, many top SS skiers, mostly from western provinces in Austria, were assigned to the Special Branch (Stapostelle) of Innsbruck and admitted to the SS-SG. The team grew stronger until the attack on Poland in September 1939. In addition to internal SS sporting events, members of the SS-SG Innsbruck regularly competed in outside ski championships. In March 1939 they won the police ski championships in Kitzbühel. The core of the Innsbruck squad consisted of SS-Oberscharführer Wilhelm Köstinger, SS-Mann Karl Gumpold, SS-Scharführer Herbert Heiss and SS-Oberscharführer Pesentheiner. From the winter of 1938–39 onward, these athletes were not only in the focus of the Nazi sports press but were also figureheads of SS propaganda.

Membership in the SS usually meant a career jump. The status as a civil servant was accompanied by additional training and qualification possibilities in the SS and police service. Sporting success could expand and consolidate a skier’s position within the SS. Top skiers were able to participate in training and competitions, while largely being exempted from SS services during wartime.

Police ski champion Köstinger, for example, as part of an intelligence agency (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) task force in Poland in September 1939, was trained to kill “political enemies” behind the frontlines. He was later stationed as an SS-Oberscharführer in Norway, where he took part in SS ski competitions. Although it is not known in which unit Köstinger served his military duty there, as a non-commissioned officer of the SD he must at least have been informed about the deportations of the Jewish people, mainly to Auschwitz. In postwar Austria Köstinger resumed his ski career as a coach and chairman of a ski club in the Gastein Valley. So did his friend Bradl, who later became national coach of the Austrian ski team.

While many Austrian SS skiers belonged to a murderous elite, Jewish skiers and ski instructors from Austria were persecuted and murdered. Those who had the chance to escape, like Walter Neuron and Paula Kann Valar, started a new life in exile, in many cases in the United States. 

This article is condensed from the ISHA award–winning book Österreichs Skisport im National-Sozialismus: Anpassung-Verfolgung-Kollaboration, by Andreas Praher, Ph.D. Dr. Praher is a postdoctoral researcher in history at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg.

College grads making high marks on the World Cup

Above: World Slalom Champion Laurence St-Germain. University of Vermont photo.

The 2023 Alpine World Championships in Courchevel/Meribel, France, served up the usual mix of big-event excitement, with medals from favorites like World Cup overall champs Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Odermatt, and surprises like unheralded super G winner James Cameron of Canada.

The excitement culminated on the final weekend in the slalom events. On the men’s side, AJ Ginnis (formerly of the U.S. Ski Team) nabbed silver—the first-ever winter sports medal for Greece— while Canadian Laurence St-Germain unseated Shiffrin to claim slalom gold. Both took unlikely paths to the top, detouring off their national teams and back to the World Cup through NCAA skiing.

Overall, these most recent World Championships featured 18 athletes who represented eight U.S. schools and their NCAA ski teams. The U.S. Ski Team alone featured six former NCAA athletes, including St-Germain’s former University of Vermont (UVM) teammate Paula Moltzan, who led Team USA to gold in the team parallel event. Canada’s entire slalom squad consisted of former or current NCAA athletes. What started out as a few racers juggling college studies, NCAA racing and World Cup skiing has now led to a World Cup start list populated by alumni of American universities.

College skiers are present throughout the World Cup development spectrum. They include athletes like Ginnis, St-Germain and Moltzan, all of whom were dropped from their national teams after performance dips; like Ali Nullmeyer, Amelia Smart, Katie Hensien and Tanguy Nef, who all started their World Cup careers as NCAA skiers; and like Jett Seymour and Justin Alkier, who used college skiing to develop World Cup–level strength and speed. Their success underscores how long the journey is to make it in ski racing and the viability of college racing as a vehicle to get there.

On the Nordic side, it’s always been customary for US athletes to work their way up via college skiing. And in the early days of Alpine ski racing, U.S. Olympic teams were populated with college athletes from schools like Dartmouth, UVM and Middlebury in the East, the University of Colorado and the University of Denver in the West. (For an in-depth look at the evolution of NCAA skiing, see “Foreign Relations,” Skiing History, July-August 2017). But with the advent of the World Cup and increased professionalization of national teams, the collegiate circuit became less attractive to aspiring racers. By 1980 there were no collegiate athletes on the U.S. Alpine Olympic Team.

College Comeback
College skiing came back as a development vehicle when NCAA races became FIS sanctioned. Following the lead of Western colleges, Dartmouth held the East’s first FIS university race in 1995, leading to what is now a fully FIS carnival circuit. As FIS-level racing legitimized NCAA events, the level of competition rose. More college athletes were motivated to compete on the NorAm circuit, where minimum FIS-point penalties are on offer, as well as World Cup start spots for the overall winner plus the top two athletes in each discipline according to the final NorAm standings.

The first American to fully exploit the revived college opportunity was David Chodounsky. A walk-on to the Dartmouth team, Chodounsky leveraged four years in a stable program into World Cup momentum. In 2009, a year after graduating, he made the U.S. Ski Team and later became the top male American slalom skier until his retirement in 2018.

Chodounsky debuted on the World Cup the same season as Norwegian Leif Kristian Haugen, then a sophomore at the University of Denver (DU). When Canadian Trevor Philp foreran the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as a junior racer, he noticed Haugen racing for Norway and also for DU. In 2012 Philp, too, started at DU and when faced with the choice between the national team and college, he chose both. Three years later, Erik Read followed Philp, establishing what would become a well-worn path for Canadians.

On the women’s side, Hedda Berntsen was a three-time All American skier for Middlebury before winning a world championship medal for Norway in 2001. Canada’s Elli Terwiel (2014 Olympian) and Norway’s Kristina Riis-Johannessen (2017 world champ medalist) pushed the pace at UVM, ushering in the parallel rise of St-Germain and Moltzan. Both earned starts for their countries in the Killington World Cup while college racing, opening their paths to the top of the ski-racing world.

Longer Careers, Tighter Budgets

The average age of male and female top competitors has steadily risen, as has the age of retirement. The U.S. Ski Team’s biggest stars of the 1980s retired before age 30. Today, the average age of the top 30 men on the World Cup is 28 in technical events and 31 in speed. On the women’s side, that average is 27 in tech and 28 in speed, with many veterans skiing deep into their 30s. U.S. stars like Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller retired at ages 34 and 40, respectively. With more veterans hanging around at the top, it’s even tougher for young athletes to break in. The process takes time and money.

The longer glide path of development has coincided with tighter budgets throughout the industry, decreased support from national teams and vastly increased expenses for aspiring racers. Gone are the days when talented teenagers enjoyed free equipment and national team funding. Post–high school gap year programs can cost as much as tuition at an elite university but without the education. College programs, on the other hand, offer intellectual and career development, a vibrant social life, athletic scholarships for some and, for all, funding for in-season ski racing expenses. All of this, along with less funding at home, steadily lured foreign athletes across the pond to take advantage of this uniquely American asset and boost the level of competition.

Developing Trend

Americans, too, started opting for college as a development strategy. In 2014, faced with a $14,000 bill to ski for the national team or a full four-year scholarship to DU, Jett Seymour chose to follow Philp’s example and do both. Katie Hensien said yes to both as well, graduating from DU in four years. Each of them picked up an NCAA title while transitioning to the World Cup. Said Seymour in an interview with Ski Racing: “College was exactly what I needed to help me mature and realize there is stuff outside of my little bubble of ski racing.”

Collegiate skiing can be a way to regroup, to ease into World Cup racing or to extend the development runway. “It takes the pressure off, and you look at the long game rather than just the short game,” says Alkier. The 2021 Middlebury grad secured both a World Cup start and a spot on the Canadian team for 2023–24. “It was always a dream of mine to race in NCAA,” says Smart, who looked up to athletes like Terwiel and Read as a youngster. “I never had really thought of just doing the World Cup path.”

Returning to Speed

NCAA athletes have also found success on the World Cup speed circuit. 2016 Junior World Downhill Champion Erik Arvidsson was a promising junior racer on the U.S. Ski Team but felt burnt out. He decided to change course and attend Middlebury. It was a risky move for a speed skier because NCAA racing only includes slalom and GS. Arvidsson recalls, “I was worried that I was choosing my life path at the time, at the age of 20.”

Instead, being part of a tight team rekindled his love for racing. Classes pushed him academically while teammates like Alkier and Tim Gavett pushed him athletically. By the time Arvidsson graduated in 2021, he had scored an eighth place in the World Cup Finals. He ended last season with a 14th-place finish in Aspen’s World Cup super G, where MSU senior Riley Seger finished 10th. After earning her degree in 2021 Dartmouth skier Tricia Mangan reclaimed a spot on the World Cup speed tour and the U.S. Ski Team.

Private Teams Take up Slack

Also helping athletes choose college racing is the rise of private, multinational teams that compete on the World Cup. Among them is Global Racing, a collection of 14 athletes who compete for 10 nations. Many of them missed the small window to earn a spot in their national teams’ development programs but are now at prime age for the World Cup. The Americans in the group—George Steffey, Brian McLaughlin and Patrick Kenney—all earned World Cup starts last season.

Gavett, who now holds a physics degree from Middlebury, will be gunning for World Cup starts with Global next season. He points out that the commitment and effort it takes to pursue ski racing at the highest level through and beyond college is self-selecting. “The amount of people who are willing to do that is quite small,” says Gavett.

The Challenges

The hurdles are significant and go well beyond skiing fast and studying hard. NCAA rules prohibit schools from training together in the off-season, which for skiing means from April to November. As Arvidsson explains, “The only people who make it [on the World Cup] out of college are the people who are incredibly savvy and fortunate on being able to organize summer training and who have access to good coaches and really good equipment and do a lot outside of the programs on their own.” He heaps credit on Gavett’s parents, who deployed their expertise and European network to facilitate more than 40 days of high-level off-season training for Arvidsson, Alkier, Gavett and Nullmeyer.

While Eastern athletes benefit from icy training surfaces and proximity to European glaciers and race venues, Western athletes have access to early-season snow. One reason Smart chose DU was because of the six-week winter break. “It’s kind of a perfect time for me to be able to go to Europe, do some World Cups and not miss a ton of school,” she says.

The Sooner, the Better

The satisfaction and support that comes with being part of a collaborative team—where everyone is invested in each other’s success—tops the list of collegiate skiing’s advantages. Of his Middlebury teammates Alkier says, “I don’t think I would have had success without them.” Smart notes that on the Canadian national team, “We all know what it felt like to be part of a college team, and we all want to recreate that and engender that within our team.”

Ginnis adds that it’s important to be realistic about a dangerous sport that only pays well at the very, very top. “If you’re not a top-30 athlete yet, college racing is the best solid return on your investment you can make as a skier.”

The biggest advantage college skiing offers is simply time. Even though he rocketed through the ranks, won a junior world medal and ascended to the World Cup early, Ginnis, who raced briefly for Dartmouth, thinks a solid dose of college skiing earlier in his career would have been a better path. “I lacked a certain maturity, especially when it came to racing,” he says. If he had a do-over? “I would have definitely gone to school when I was 18, 19 years old and raced a couple of years, at least, in college.”

He points out that the majority of skiers who start racing World Cup early on take forever to break through to consistent second runs, getting beaten down in the process. “The older and more mature you are when you start racing full time on the World Cup, the better it is,” says Ginnis. Also, the more established you are on the circuit, the more difficult it is to toggle back and forth to college skiing; in the beginning, however, the variety of pace and atmosphere can ease the transition to the big leagues.

Overwhelmingly, the advice World Cup grads offer to younger athletes who want to go to college is to go earlier rather than later. Athletes are heeding that advice. American Cooper Puckett entered Dartmouth as a freshman while on the U.S. Ski Team’s D squad. As a sophomore, he raced for Dartmouth as well.

“It was a pretty scary decision to make,” recalls Puckett, who sought advice from Ginnis. “He helped me completely visualize it and map it out.” Puckett says watching Ginnis win his silver medal “the most inspiring thing ever.” In addition to competing in his third Alpine Junior World Championships, Puckett earned a spot on Dartmouth’s 2023 NCAA Championship team and improved his ranking enough to advance to the U.S. C team.

Graduate School

St-Germain’s Instagram profile reads: “Alpine ski racer, Olympian, World Champion 2023, full-time student.” After earning her degree in computer science from UVM, she is pursuing a second undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering. Smart, meanwhile, graduated with a double major in environmental science and computer science in 2021. Then, with teammates St-Germain and Nullmeyer engaged in their studies, she got bored on the road. “I decided that I know I can do school and ski so I might as well keep going,” says Smart.

Read completed the Canadian Securities Course last summer. Ginnis puts his econ chops to work daily managing his own team—from sponsorships to training to staff. Nef used his computer science major for an internship with Amazon, and Alkier feeds his interest in finance by researching investments during his down time. This summer, Arvidsson fit in an internship at BlackRock Asset Management. For him, a college degree means that when he’s done with skiing, he’ll have more options.

The security of a college degree is priceless and is also often misrepresented. Gavett, for instance, doesn’t look at his physics degree as a Plan B in case ski racing doesn’t work out. “It’s not a backup,” he explains. “It’s a future when you’re done ski racing.” 

Regular contributor Edie Thys Morgan wrote about Mikaela Shiffrin closing in on Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time World Cup wins record in the March-April 2023 issue.

Current NCAA College Grads on the World Cup

Here’s an unofficial scorecard of NCAA grads competing in the World Cup, including birth year, name, nationality, years racing in the NCAA; college, year of graduation and degree.

’91 Erik Read, Canada, NCAA 2015–17; University of Denver ’17 Business

’93 Brian McLaughlin, U.S., NCAA 2015–18; Dartmouth ’18 Engineering

’94 AJ Ginnis, U.S./Greece, NCAA 2020; Dartmouth ’22 Economics

’96 Tanguy Nef, Switzerland, NCAA 2017–20; Dartmouth ’20 Computer Science

’96 Erik Arvidsson, U.S., NCAA 2018-21; Middlebury ’21 History

’97 Riley Seger, Canada, 2019–22; Montana State University ’23 Business Finance

’97 Simon Fournier, Canada, NCAA 2019–22; University of Denver ’23 Business Finance

’97 Patrick Kenney, U.S., NCAA 2018–20; University of New Hampshire ’21 Economics

’98 Justin Alkier, U.S., NCAA 2019–22; Middlebury ’22 Economics

’94 Laurence St-Germain, Canada, 2015–19; University of Vermont ’19 Computer Science

’96 Roni Remme, Canada/Germany, NCAA 2016–20; University of Utah ’20 Psychology

’97 Tricia Mangan, U.S., NCAA 2019–20; Dartmouth ’21 Engineering

’98 Amelia Smart, Canada, NCAA 2018–21; University of Denver ’21 Double Major Environmental Science/Computer Science

’99 Katie Hensien, U.S., NCAA 2019–22; University of Denver ’22 Marketing and Entrepreneurship

’98 Ali Nullmeyer, U.S., NCAA 2020–23; Middlebury ’23 Economics

Paused after junior year
’98 Jett Seymour, U.S., 2018–20; University of Denver, International Business and Finance

’94 Paula Moltzan, U.S., 2017–19; University of Vermont, Biology

Butting Heads with Beattie en route to the Olympic Dream

In Part I of this series (May-June 2023), Howard Head overcame setbacks and pursued his visionary metal ski design. By 1960, he had captured a large part of the recreational market, and metal skis were beginning to dominate downhill racing. Here, Head staff and U.S. racers recall a time of transition and historic achievement.

Photo top of page: At the Mt. Bachelor training camp, left to right: Starr Walton, Gordi Eaton, Rip McManus, Billy Kidd, Margo Walters (McDonald), Barbara Ferries (Henderson), Chuck Ferries, Joan Hannah, Bob Beattie, Linda Meyers (Tikalsky), Jean Saubert, Annibale “Ni” Orsi, Jimmie Heuga, Bill Marolt, Buddy Werner. Jim Hosmer photo.

Though American women had been top contenders in Olympic racing, the men had never medaled. In 1961, the National Ski Association picked University of Colorado coach Bob Beattie to renovate the national program. He was authoritative and ambitious, with a background in cross-country skiing and football coaching, but he was not stepping onto a level playing field.

According to U.S. racer Gordi Eaton, “At this time there was a strong emphasis on pro and amateur. We all knew that some European racers were taking money, but we had bought into the Olympic rules.” Tough situation for Beattie, the new strait-laced U.S. coach.

He responded to the challenge by creating a de facto national training center within his program at CU Boulder. He arranged athletic scholarships, access to facilities and support from local families.

Racer (and later coach and administrator) Bill Marolt recalls, “We were going to do it the American way. He had a vision for the program, and it was a game changer.” There were new advantages for the racers, but challenges, too.

For example, Beattie was fixated on physical fitness. As the leaves turned in Boulder, skiers ran the trails of Green Mountain, did the same type of agility drills as football players and hit the weight room.

Ni Orsi: Beats knew that strength was very important to winning.

Barbara Ferries: We did exactly what the boys did, except we were not allowed in the weight room. [Title IX was a decade away.]

Billy Kidd: Beattie knew how to get the most out of his athletes. And one of the things was you get in better shape than anybody else.

Bill Marolt: It was the Exhaustion Method.

1962 winter was a World Championships year. The skiers took incompletes in their classes and headed to Europe, planning to finish schoolwork in the spring. It was an adventure, especially for the women, who felt they were on their own without a coach (though their travel was managed by Fred Neuberger of Middlebury College). Nonetheless, they got good results.

Buddy Werner, winner of the 1959 Hahnenkamm downhill, was the team leader. He helped Chuck Ferries improve and win the 1962 Hahnenkamm slalom and grab second in the combined. Ferries also won the next slalom, at Cortina. His sister, Barbara, took bronze in the World Championship downhill at Chamonix, and Joan Hannah got bronze in giant slalom. Karl Schranz, of Austria, won the downhill and combined on fiberglass skis made by Kneissl.

Back at the Head factory in Timonium, Maryland, a new model was in the works. The Competition sported two layers of aluminum on top with a thin layer of neoprene rubber between them. This structure had a damping effect to reduce chatter. It was Howard Head’s ace-in-the-hole going into 1963.

Head Success in Europe

Significant inroads were soon made to the Swiss national team with the help of Walter Haensli, a long-time Head confidant. Swiss skier Josef “Jos” Minsch, on Head skis, won the 1963 pre-Olympic downhill at Innsbruck, upsetting the powerful Austrians. As the European tour and big U.S. events wound down that spring, Werner, on Kästle wooden skis, and Jean Saubert, on Heads, were skiing well.

U.S. Nationals were held that spring at Mt. Aleyska, Alaska. Europeans Minsch, Barbi Henneberger and Willy Favre won some races, but their results did not count toward U.S. titles. Marolt won the downhill. Minsch was fastest in giant slalom but Werner, in second, got that title and also won the combined. Chuck Ferries won the slalom. Saubert took the women’s downhill and GS, Sandy Shellworth the slalom, and Starr Walton the combined. Most skied on wooden Kästle or Kneissl skis.

The 1964 U.S. Alpine Olympic ski team was then named—eight men and six women. It was an eclectic group of talented skiers who had earned their spots with key results or were chosen by Beattie. Many excellent racers did not make the cut.

On August 25, 1963, the team met for its first training sessions at Mt. Bachelor, Oregon. The racers stayed at the rustic resort of Elk Lake. It was a fun and challenging situation, and team members had good feelings for each other but mixed feelings about coach Beattie.

Bill Marolt: We had cabins with wood stoves. In the morning, we’d have to build a fire to warm up.

Ni Orsi: We would take the lift up to near the top and then walk up farther to where we trained. No lift. We walked up, skied down and then walked up.

Billy Kidd: Buddy Werner was so gracious and generous, and would help the younger racers.

Barbara Ferries: Linda [Meyers] was the oldest and always the mother, trying to take care of everyone, especially me. Joanie [Hannah] just wanted to race. She had this work ethic—she tried really hard.

Gordi Eaton: Let me say this about Jean Saubert: great lady and a great competitor.

Kidd: Ni was a natural athlete, a champion water-skier. He could do anything and pick stuff up right away.

Starr Walton: Ni was terribly good looking. In Europe, he got in a little trouble because he wouldn’t quite make curfew or was out with girls.

Orsi: Beats was a great coach and tried his best to keep me under control. He even had me move in with him and his wife to make sure I was not destroying my Olympic hopes.

Kidd: I had to tape my ankle like a basketball player—couldn’t run a lot because my ankle would swell up or collapse. But he [Beattie] saw it as I was just not tough enough, not able to keep up, so he didn’t like me that much.

Ferries: There was a bit of tension between some of the girls and Beattie.

Joan Hannah: Beattie was trying to make us all ski the Dyna-Turn. It was his view of how Buddy skied. “Drive those knees!” Problem, he didn’t have the whole picture. We ended up slower.

Walton: Women need women coaches. He was a football coach, a boy’s coach.

Eaton: I loved the guy. It was time for someone to have this exceptional passion and dedication to U.S. skiing and U.S. ski racers year-round!

Marolt: It was a great situation for team building. Everybody jumped in and went as hard as they could go, which was fun.

A crew from Head set up a wax room in Skjersaa’s ski shop at the Mt. Bachelor base. Gordon Butterfield guided strategy and kept notes for the home office. Clay Freeman was a good skier and the racers liked him. The technical savant was Freddy Pieren. According to Head rep Tom Ettinger, “He knew more about how skis work than anyone in the country. Howard always listened to him!”

Kästle set up in an abandoned boat house, while other reps prowled by car from Bend. By the end of the first day, the Head shop had received visits from most of the team and many got filing and waxing help from Pieren and Freeman. Everyone had a common goal: win medals at Innsbruck.

On Tuesday, August 27, Pieren discussed flex patterns. Chuck Ferries opined that men and women need different skis. Tuning work continued. Beattie came by, made a cursory inspection, then left. He returned later to direct the Head team not to work on the racers’ skis; skiers should do it themselves. According to Butterfield’s notes: “Beattie has not been at all friendly. And it is difficult to evaluate if this is his total preoccupation with coaching or actual resentment.”

Reps Warned off Waxing

On Wednesday, Butterfield noted that everyone on the team was testing at least one pair of skis except Werner and Barbara Ferries. Butterfield met with Beattie. It became a dissertation by Beattie on his coaching philosophy, including that ski prep would be a coach/racer domain. The Head crew should not approach team members on the hill, and stay away during dryland training, indoor sessions and meals. Racers could come to the Head shop during their free time to work on their skis and consult with Head techs.

On August 30, Jimmy Heuga took out a pair of Head slalom skis. Werner, Chuck Ferries and Eaton—Kästle stalwarts—did not try the new Head slaloms. Beattie became more amicable.

On Sunday, September 1, Pieren had a chance encounter with assistant coaches Marv Melville and Don Henderson. Both enthusiastically endorsed Head products. Pieren quoted Henderson as saying, “By the time the team gets to Europe, we’ll have them all on Heads.” Butterfield noted in his report, “Relations are now excellent.” But not for everyone.

Walton met with Butterfield and confided she was having problems with Beattie. He advised that she do what he did and talk to the coach, get things out in the open. She was a free spirit, sure about what worked for her. Beattie was regimented, sure that his program was right for everyone. According to Walton, they never did settle their differences.

On September 3, Marolt, impressed by the International Professional Ski Racing Association racers using Heads the previous year, was on GS Comps. He said they were okay, but that he wasn’t skiing his best. Walton moved to a slightly longer slalom ski and reported them good. Her morale improved.

On September 4, Freeman drove Beattie to Bend for an appearance at a Rotary Club meeting. They thanked the locals for their support of the camp. Later that day Pieren and Beattie had a long conversation and needled each other a bit. The result was a more familiar relationship going forward.

On September 5, Howard Head arrived on the scene. He had breakfast with Bill Healy, president of Mt. Bachelor, and then went up to the training area. As the racers quit for the day, Head greeted each one personally.

Beattie was there and “had to be nothing but jovial,” Butterfield reported . Then, surprisingly, he invited Head to address the Olympic team at dinner. This was a clear breach of his own rules and a possible sign of advancement for Head.

On the morning of September 6, the Head team said its good-byes and departed Elk Lake. Butterfield tapped out the last few lines of his report near Reno, where they dropped Head at the airport. It was a hot afternoon in the eastern Sierra. “It doesn’t feel the least bit like winter…but our mind’s eyes see visions of victory ceremonies at Innsbruck and of medals going to athletes using products made in the USA.”

Ross Milne Killed

Just under five months later, at Innsbruck, Orsi was preparing for a training run in the downhill when there was a course delay. He was on 220-cm Head Comps with Marker bindings, having switched from Kneissl and Look. Around the start, racers were warming up amid bare ground and rocks. There was so little snow that the Austrian army had hauled the stuff in to build the course. Orsi recalls that it was “very rough, narrow with little or no snow on the edges.”

The delay was for Australian racer Ross Milne, who had encountered people stopped on the course during his run. He veered off into the snowless woods and hit a stump. He died on the way to the hospital. Eaton also had a bad fall in training, tearing a boot upper from the sole and suffering a concussion.

The downhill race, on January 30, followed the opening ceremony by just a day, and Orsi remembers, “I regret not being able to march. Beats had the downhillers stay in their rooms to get a good night’s sleep.” Beattie had picked Orsi, Kidd, Werner and Chuck Ferries to run what Kidd called the “ribbon of ice.” All four finished in the top 20, with Orsi and Kidd leading on Head Comps, in 14th and 16th places. Minsch, on Heads, was just six hundredths off the podium in fourth. Orsi believes the Americans missed the wax but doesn’t remember who was responsible. “Our wax was wrong and cost us dearly,” he says. Austrian Egon Zimmermann won by .74 seconds on metal Fischers.

Racers who did attend the opening ceremony were thrilled. Barbara Ferries recalls, “I was like, ‘Oh my God, look what’s happening.’ We got the uniforms, we marched in the parade. It was very exciting.” Walton says, “That’s pretty cool when you walk in representing your country like that.” She also had American-made Head skis. “I am representing the United States, and if they have a ski that’s worthy, if they’ve come along with a ski that’s good, hell, I’d ski on an American ski.”

Walton led the American women in the downhill, placing 14th, with Hannah right behind her, Margo Walters placed 21st and Saubert 26th, all on Heads. Hannah was disappointed.

“Beattie missed the wax. There is nothing worse than feeling slow skis on the flat,” she says. “The wax should have been skied out. We finished in the order we skied on our skis. Jean Saubert carried her skis to the start and was the last of us.”

The men’s giant slalom was on a steep, icy pitch, but with a rhythmical set. Kidd placed seventh on Head Comps, and Marolt, from bib 28 and also on Heads, was 12th. Heuga and Werner, both on wooden Kästles, disqualified.

Medals for Saubert, Kidd, Heuga

In the women’s giant slalom, Saubert, on Heads, tied for second and secured America’s first skiing medal at Innsbruck—the French Goitschel sisters, in first and tied for second, used aluminum Rossignol Allais 60 skis. Barbara Ferries was 20th, also on Heads, and Hannah and Linda Meyers were 26th and 30th. Saubert scored again in the women’s slalom, taking the bronze on Head skis. Meyers was 12th and Hannah 19th. Ferries disqualified. The winner was Marielle Goitschel (on the new Dynamic-built RG5 fiberglass skis).

The men’s slalom was the last Alpine event of the Games. Beattie entered Werner, Chuck Ferries, Kidd and Heuga, all on Kästle skis. In a very close race, Kidd and Heuga made history for American men by taking silver and bronze. Werner was eighth, and Ferries, characteristically pushing too hard, disqualified.

All things considered, it was a fine Olympics for the U.S. team. Beattie’s new system essentially worked. The women continued to excel, and the men finally took home some hardware. And Head cracked into the ski racing market. The U.S. box score: two medals for Head and two for Kästle.

Ni Orsi: For the most part we competed against professionals and with such a disadvantage, I think we did extremely well.

Barbara Ferries: The most important thing Bob [Beattie] did for us was that he put us together as a team. We cheered for each other. It was a fabulous time.

Gordi Eaton: Friendships were made, and they still endure. Most of us feel very fortunate to have been involved during this time.

Ferries: The Head skis—that was a big deal for the American team to have those skis.

Starr Walton: I did the best I could do, and for me, at the end of the day, that’s my gold medal.

Howard Head continued to innovate in ski technology, but in 1969 he sold the company. He had raised his $6,000 opening bet into a $16 million jackpot. Ever the restless inventor, he eventually got into another sports racket and rallied a new company, called Prince. 

For research help, the author thanks Richard Allen, Abby Blackburn, Christin Cooper, Chip Fisher, Mike Hundert, Leroy Kingland, Brian Linder, Marv Melville, Paul Ryan and all the quoted racers.

The Swann Galleries’ annual auction remains a treasure hunt for vintage-art enthusiasts.

The recent auction of vintage posters at Manhattan’s Swann Galleries offered up rarities, blue-chip examples, newly unearthed design gems and some downright oddities. The March 9, 2023, sale included posters from the earliest days of skiing, midcentury modern examples and masterpieces from the golden age of poster design in the 1930s. In total, there were nearly 60 posters from the United States, Switzerland and France, as well as from lesser-known sources like Chile and the former Czechoslovakia.

Thanks to lingering post-pandemic rules, the auction took place virtually (in-person auctions are likely to resume soon). Yet the interest was as heated as ever, with pre-bidding and bidding by phone and online remaining vigorous. The latter was abetted by the easy access afforded by companies like Invaluable, which enables users to bid digitally on sales at more than 4,000 auction houses worldwide. The days when you had to physically get yourself to an auction room are long gone, but, concurrently, the pool of bidders has grown that much wider.

One of the earliest posters up for sale at the Swann auction was “Gossensass/Wintersport,” by an unknown artist. The image was estimated to be circa 1910 and depicted a man and a woman on skis, each holding a single ski pole. The background is a valley where a fashionable wooden resort hotel can be seen, along with mountain peaks, toboggans and skaters. Situated in South Tyrol, near the Brenner Pass, the resort of Gossensass opened in the 19th century, counting playwright Henrik Ibsen among its most famous guests.

“I’ve looked at this poster a dozen times, and I’ve never seen some of these figures before,” said Nicholas Lowry as he closely examined the work during a preview of the sale. Lowry is president of Swann Galleries, head of the gallery’s poster division and a well-known appraiser on PBS’ Antiques Roadshow. “This is the Tyrol, and that’s the resort’s original Alpine hotel, circa 1910, based on the woman’s long skirt and use of a single staff,” he added. “When I see this, it looks like it was almost taken from a photograph, and the realism is almost there. But the color is very unusual, a kind of sunset orange.”

The poster was estimated to sell between $1,500 and $2,000, but it soared to $4,250 (including the buyer’s premium, 25 percent of the hammer price).

Another early poster, by artist Louis Tauzin, was titled “Les Vosges/Chemins de Fer de l’Est,” a railroad company’s advertisement for resorts in the Vosges mountains. The resorts there were ideal for family ski vacations, smaller and less challenging than those in the Alps. The poster shows a bobsled team that is avidly watched by skiers and sledders, with ice skaters on a lake in the background. Notably, the skiers depicted have already transitioned to double poles.

“The colors here are much more realistic looking than the ones in the Gossensass poster,” Lowry said of the 1912 image.” You know it’s pure advertising propaganda, but it is a slice of life.” The poster sold at its top estimate of $4,000.

The Swann sale offered some blue-chip classics, such as Herbert Matter’s photomontage “Winterferien-Doppelte Ferien/Schweiz,” showing a smiling woman superimposed over a stylized mountain landscape with miniature figures of photomontage skiers. It went for $3,250, above its $3,000 estimate. Martin Peikert’s “Pontresina/Diavolezza” highlighted the famous tram at this resort in the Engadin but it sold for $2,250, below its $3,000 low estimate.

“Yosemite Winter Sports” is from 1935 and was created by an unknown artist. It is an impressionistic image of a skier navigating the California slopes and sold for $3,750, within its $3,500–$4,500 range. “There are no black outlines in this poster; it’s all done with varying shades of purple,” Lowry pointed out. “Yet it feels so incredibly detailed. One nice little touch is the spray of powder from his skis. When you look at the angle of the skier, you know it was done by someone who knew all about skiing. It’s so accomplished in its simplicity.”

Several posters appeared at Swann for the first time, including “Ski Colorado” by Red Gates, circa 1957. The artist designed at least one other poster for Ski Colorado in the 1950s. This was a new one for Lowry, who has a near-photographic memory for ski posters. Showing a very stylized skier turning around his long skis, it’s a masterpiece of abstraction and went for $1,250, just above its low estimate of $1,200.

“This is classic midcentury modernism,” said Lowry. Indeed, the mountains look almost like mathematical graphs. Added Lowry, “Amid all the geometric abstractions, you also have the patterns on his sweater. It’s really amazing.”

He also pointed out two posters for Alberta, rarities that he had never seen before.

“Sunny Alberta/Winter Wonderland/ In the Canadian Rockies” is a photo montage of a blond skier in a red jacket that would make the Canadian Mounties proud. She’s superimposed over a map of the area’s ski resorts, and the poster was created to advertise the Intercollegiate Ski Meet, Banff Winter Carnival and Jasper Winter Carnival. The poster, circa early 1950s and designed by an unknown artist, sold for a bargain $812, barely over its $800 low estimate. A similar poster advertising the same events and dated 1952 illustrates a female skier and a smiling sun wearing sunglasses. This one jumped its high estimate of $1,200 and sold for $1,500.

“These two posters are super unusual, and that’s what I love,” said Lowry. “I am grateful to our clients for finding posters like these that I have never seen before.”

Another oddity was “Vive la Différence.” This poster advertising Mt. Snow shows “a dude in his ugly sweater and a woman in a bikini, both depicted from behind,” said Lowry. “It uses blue and green in shades that are midcentury modern, with ski slopes and a swimming pool. It’s charming and trying to be cool and hip, and it’s like it’s trying to be a French resort. I’ve never seen it before. It’s funky and unusual since so many ski posters are all about location, location, location.” The poster sold for just $562, well below its $700 to $1,000 estimate.

Yet another new poster for Lowry was “Mt. Spokane/Chair Lift/ Mt. Spokane State Park,” a midcentury gem reminiscent of the work of Sascha Maurer, who designed so many Vermont ski posters in the 1950s. Lowry, however, looked at the typography, the way that the word “SKI” was in three different colors, the design and details such as the Ray-Ban–like sunglasses, the position of the skis and the abstraction and saw something else. “The artist is unknown, but whoever it was had a complete understanding of European graphic design,” he explained. “They knew what they were doing, and they were using the styles of the masters. This is a good poster, and I would hang it on my wall.” The price was also right, selling for $750, estimated at $700 to $1,000.

The most exotic piece in the sale was probably “Chile/Alegria/ Nieve Y Sol/,” by the Chilean artist Isaias Cabezon. A woman stands ankle-deep in the snow, holding a snowball, while behind her are skiers and ski tracks in the distance. “It’s the 1930s and this poster of a very fashionably dressed woman is like an illustration from a fashion magazine,” Lowry said. “The colors are very different from other ski posters, and it’s all about happiness in the snow and sunshine.”

It was also the earliest Chilean ski poster he had ever seen, possibly from the first days of Portillo. It clearly pleased at least one collector, who paid $1,500, well above its $1,000 top estimate.

The star of the auction was no surprise: “Les Sports d’Hiver St. Pierre de Chartreuse,” by one of the great masters of poster art, Roger Broders. This work by the French artist and illustrator depicts the Alpine resort of Perquelin, where a group of spectators have gathered to watch a bobsled team fly by. Broders excelled at many aspects of poster design, including an ability to depict a crowd in a stylized, slightly abstract way that makes it look vibrant and alive. The scene shows a colorful group of onlookers, shouldering or holding their wooden skis. In the background, other skiers continue to navigate the slopes. Meanwhile, the bobsled team reaches out to handle the sharp curve in an artwork that’s alive and captures a snapshot in time.

“It’s in staggeringly good condition and is a staggeringly beautiful poster,” said Lowry. “Everything about this is great. The crowds, the action, the skier charging uphill.” This 1930 poster achieves what other posters of the time tried to do with various levels of success: showing multiple sports and the fun one could have in the snow, from bobsledding to tobogganing to skiing. “More than that, it shows you the people who came to the resorts,” Lowry adds. “This is not just an activity; this is a lifestyle event. You see someone wearing a beret, a fellow skiing in a tie and another in a bow tie, scarves nicely tied, women in fur coats and a sweater with piping. These were the beautiful people of the time.”

While the folds of the mountains, the shadows and the trees seem incredibly realistic, Lowry noted one unusual aspect. “It’s amazing how much empty space there is in this poster,” he said. “You don’t even realize it as you stare at it and don’t feel or see it. Yet you don’t feel like the artist missed something. That’s why it appears so realistic. The perspective is amazing.” The masterwork by Broders shot well above its $15,000 high estimate to close at $17,500. 

Swann’s next auction featuring vintage ski posters will be held in March 2024. Visit Swann Galleries at swanngalleries.com

New York–based travel writer Everett Potter wrote about Sundance, Utah, in the January-February 2021 issue.