Phil Mahre

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Olympic medal record
Men’s Alpine Skiing
Gold	1984 Sarajevo	Slalom
Silver	1980 Lake Placid	Slalom
World Championships
Gold	1980 Lake Placid	Combined
Silver	1980 Lake Placid	Slalom

Philip Mahre (born May 10, 1957, Yakima, Washington) is a former American alpine ski racer, widely regarded as the greatest American skier of all time. Phil and his twin brother Steve (four minutes younger) were world class ski racers in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Phil, Steve, and their seven siblings literally grew up at a ski area; their father Dave was the mountain manager for the White Pass ski area west of Yakima.

1 U.S. Ski Team
2 1980 Olympics
3 World Cup Titles - (1981-83)
4 1984 Olympics
5 External Links
6 World Cup victories

[edit] U.S. Ski Team

Phil Mahre joined the U.S. Ski team in early 1973 at age 15. He was selected to the "A' team following the 1975 season and competed at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, taking fifth in the giant slalom at age 18. He would finish the 1976 World Cup season at 14th place in the overall standings. He won his first World Cup race the next season, a slalom at Val d'Isère in December 1976. He followed it up with another slalom win in March at Sun Valley, defeating Ingemar Stenmark, with brother Steve taking third. Phil would finish ninth in the overall standings for 1977.

The following World Cup season he would establish himself as one of the best ski racers in the world. In 1978 he placed second in the overall standings and in 1979 he finished third.

[edit] 1980 Olympics

At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, he took the silver in the slalom behind the legendary Stenmark, and take the unofficial Olympic combined title (official as a concurrent World Championship title), and finish third in the overall World Cup standings for 1980.

[edit] World Cup Titles - (1981-83)

In the next three seasons Phil's career reached its height. He won the most prestigious title in alpine skiing - the overall World Cup title - three (3) consecutive seasons from 1981-83.

Only two other Americans have won the World Cup overall title: Tamara McKinney in 1983 and Bode Miller in 2005. When McKinney won the women's title in 1983, it marked the only year that both World Cup overall titles have been won by Americans.

His best year was 1982 when he took the event titles in the giant slalom and slalom, as well as winning the overall title. Mahre had eight wins and 20 podium finishes, and his 309 points were well ahead of nearest the rival, [[Ingemar Stenmark], with 211. Twin brother Steve finished third overall at 183 points, and also won the World Championship in the giant slalom at Schladming. In 1983 Phil would win the giant slalom title again.

[edit] 1984 Olympics

At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Phil again medaled in the slalom, this time taking the gold while Steve won the silver for a Mahre twin 1-2 sweep, one of five medals taken by Americans, all from the Northwest. Portland's Bill Johnson (downhill) and Seattle's Debbie Armstrong (giant slalom) also won gold, and Christin Cooper of Sun Valley took the silver behind Armstrong for an American 1-2 finish in the women's giant slalom.

The Mahre twins raced a limited World Cup schedule during the 1984 season, and retired from the circuit in March at age 26. In 1985, the brothers released the book No Hill Too Fast.

[edit] External Links

U.S. Olympic Team.com - biography for Phil Mahre
FIS-ski.com - Phil Mahre - results
Ski-db.com - Phil Mahre - results
TIME.com - "For Purple Mountains' Majesty" - 21-Mar-1983
TIME.com - "Their Success Is All in the Family" - 30-Jan-1984
Seattle Post-Intelligencer - "Where are they now?: Phil Mahre" - 09-Feb-2006
Washington Sports Hall of Fame - Phil Mahre

[edit] World Cup victories

Date	Location	Race
1976-12-10	Val d'Isère	Giant Slalom
1977-03-05	Sun Valley	Slalom
1978-02-12	Chamonix	Slalom
1978-03-03	Stratton Mountain	Giant Slalom
1979-01-15	Crans-Montana	Combined
1979-02-05	Jasná	Slalom
1979-12-08	Val d'Isère	Combined
1981-01-10	Morzine	Combined
1981-01-17	Oberstaufen	Combined
1981-02-01	St. Anton	Combined
1981-02-15	Åre	Slalom
1981-03-07	Aspen	Giant Slalom
1981-03-15	Furano	Slalom
1981-12-08	Aprica	Combined
1981-12-09	Madonna di Campiglio	Slalom
1981-12-13	Madonna di Campiglio	Combined
1982-01-15	Bad Wiessee	Combined
1982-01-24	Wengen	Slalom
1982-03-19	Kranjska Gora	Giant Slalom
1982-03-26	Jasná	Slalom
1982-03-14	Montgenèvre	Slalom
1983-01-23	Kitzbühel	Combined
1983-02-11	Markstein	Combined
1983-02-06	St. Anton	Combined
1983-03-07	Aspen	Giant Slalom
1983-03-08	Vail	Giant Slalom
1983-03-19	Furano	Giant Slalom

Olympic champions in men's slalom
1948: Edy Reinalter \| 1952: Othmar Schneider \| 1956: Toni Sailer \| 1960: Ernst Hinterseer \| 1964: Josef Stiegler \| 1968: Jean-Claude Killy \| 1972: Francisco Fernández Ochoa \| 1976: Piero Gros \| 1980: Ingemar Stenmark \| 1984: Phil Mahre \| 1988: Alberto Tomba \| 1992: Finn Christian Jagge \| 1994: Thomas Stangassinger \| 1998: Hans Petter Buraas \| 2002: Jean-Pierre Vidal \| 2006: Benjamin Raich