Phil Mahre
| — Alpine ski racer — | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disciplines |
Downhill, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Combined | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | White Pass | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
May 10, 1957 Yakima, Washington, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup debut |
December 5, 1975 (age 18) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | March 1984 (age 27) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | mahretrainingcenter.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Olympics | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | 3 - (1976-84) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Medals | 2 (1 gold) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| World Championships | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams |
4 - (1976-82) includes two Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Medals | 2 (1 gold) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seasons | 9 - (1976-84) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Wins | 27 - (7 GS, 9 SL, 11 K) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Podiums | 69 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Overall titles | 3 - (1981-83) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline titles | 7 - (2 GS, 1 SL, 4 K) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Phillip Ferdinand "Phil" Mahre (born May 10, 1957) is an American former champion alpine ski racer, widely regarded as one of the greatest American skiers of all time. His total of 27 World Cup race wins is third among Americans, behind only Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn.
Born in Yakima, Washington, Phil and his twin brother Steve (four minutes younger) were both world class ski racers and competed on the World Cup circuit from 1976-84. Starting with the 1978 season, Phil finished in the top three in the World Cup overall standings for six consecutive seasons, winning the title in the final three (1981-83).
On February 9, 2010, Phil Mahre was the only U.S. torch bearer to carry the Vancouver 2010 torch across the border at the Blaine-Surrey Peace Arch.[1]
Early years
Despite their very similar appearance and according to the delivering physician, the Mahre twins are fraternal rather than identical twins. Phil, Steve, and their seven siblings (four older, three younger) literally grew up at a ski area; in 1964, their father Dave "Spike" Mahre became the mountain manager for the White Pass ski area, 50 miles (80 km) west of Yakima on US-12, where they moved into a home near the base of the lifts.
By the age of 12, the Mahre twins' future was so promising that ski manufacturers sent them free skis, and the next year Rossignol tried to sign them to a career-long contract, which their father declined. Eventually they would use skis made by an American company, K2, throughout their career. K2 was located on Vashon Island, just west of Seattle, a few hours northwest of White Pass. The Mahre twins would work extensively with the company throughout their careers, developing custom race skis ideally suited to their needs.
U.S. Ski Team
Mahre earned a spot on the U.S. Ski Team in early 1973 at age 15. He was selected to the "A" team following the 1975 season and made his World Cup debut in December 1975 at Val d'Isère, France. Two months later he competed at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, taking fifth in the giant slalom at age 18. He made his first podium in March with a second in a giant slalom at Copper Mountain, Colorado, and finished the 1976 World Cup season in 14th place in the overall standings. He won his first World Cup race the next season, a giant slalom at Val d'Isère in December 1976. He followed it up with a slalom win in March at Sun Valley, defeating the man who would become his fiercest rival, the legendary Swede Ingemar Stenmark, with brother Steve taking third. Phil finished ninth in the overall standings for 1977.
The following season would establish Phil Mahre as one of the best ski racers in the world. In 1978 he placed second in the overall standings, followed by third in 1979. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, he took the silver in the slalom behind Stenmark, along with the unofficial Olympic combined title (official as a concurrent World Championship title). He would once again finish third in the overall World Cup standings for 1980, while winning the first of four consecutive discipline titles in the combined.
World Cup Overall Champion (1981-83)
Phil's career reached its zenith over the next three seasons. He won the most prestigious title in alpine skiing, the overall World Cup title, three consecutive years from 1981-83. He narrowly edged Ingemar Stenmark, who had previously won three consecutive overall titles from 1976-78, by only 6 points to capture his first title in 1981. Mahre won primarily due to his results in the downhill and combined events, as Stenmark was uncomfortable in the downhill event.[2] Mahre's finest year was 1982 when he took the event titles in the giant slalom, slalom, and combined, as well as winning the overall title. Mahre had eight wins and 20 podium finishes, and his 309 points were well ahead of Stenmark's 211. Twin brother Steve finished third overall at 183 points, and also won the World Championship in the giant slalom at Schladming, Austria. In 1983, Phil would once again beat Stenmark by a large margin for the overall title, along with taking a second straight giant slalom title.
Only three other Americans have won the World Cup overall title: Tamara McKinney (1983), Bode Miller (2005 & 2008), and Lindsey Vonn (2008 & 2009).
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. Steve had led the first of two runs, skiing flawlessly and building a large half-second lead over Swede Jonas Nilsson with Phil in third place, another two-tenths back. Phil skied a fine second run to grab the lead, then Nilsson skied next and faltered, dropping out of the medals. Steve skied down last, needing only a solid run to take the gold, but a series of mistakes dropped him into second place, and Phil became the Olympic champion. Meanwhile, unknown to the racers, Phil's wife Holly had given birth to a son in Arizona an hour before the race started. Phil did not find out about it until a TV interview after the race.
The Mahres won two of the five alpine skiing 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. Phil ended his career with 27 World Cup race victories, at the time second only to Stenmark's 79 wins among men's racers (who would end his career in 1989 with 86 wins), while Steve finished with 9 wins.
Post-retirement
In 1985, Phil and his brother released their book No Hill Too Fast, which chronicles their childhood and World Cup careers, and includes a series of instructional sections titled "How to Ski the Mahre Way". That same year the twins established the Mahre Training Center in Keystone, Colorado, and continue to run it to this day in Deer Valley, Utah. The twins attended the Bob Bondurant School of Driving in the fall of 1988 and began competing in auto racing. They are currently racing in the Grand American Road Racing Association Koni Challenge series, in the Grand Sport class.
Comeback
In 2006, at the age of 49, Phil Mahre decided it was time to come out of retirement and make another run at qualifying for the U.S. Nationals by the age of 50.[3] After nearly qualifying for the U.S. National Championships in 2008, Phil Mahre's 2008-09 season was cut short by a knee injury -- (surgery - March 2009)
A longtime racer on K2 skis during his World Cup career, Mahre made his comeback using Völkl, then Head skis.
World Cup results
Season standings
| Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 18 | 14 | 7 | 10 | — | — |
| 1977 | 19 | 9 | 12 | 4 | — | — |
| 1978 | 20 | 2 | 3 | 3 | — | — |
| 1979 | 21 | 3 | 2 | 18 | — | — |
| 1980 | 22 | 3 | 12 | 9 | — | 1 |
| 1981 | 23 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 1 |
| 1982 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 26 | 1 |
| 1983 | 25 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 18 | 1 |
| 1984 | 26 | 15 | 9 | 19 | 39 | 11 |
Season titles10 titles: 3 overall,
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Individual races
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See also
References
- ↑ Yakima's Phil Mahre Carries Torch Into U.S. | KEPR CBS 19 - News, Weather and Sports - Pasco, WA - Pasco, Washington | Local & Regional
- ↑ FIS-ski.com - 1981 men's overall standings - accessed 2010-12-27
- ↑ Vinton, Nathaniel (January 15, 2007). "A New Hill to Descend: Mahre Returns With Big Goal". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- Mahre, Phil and Steve; with John Fry (1985). No Hill Too Fast. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-55706-8.
External links
- Phil Mahre at the International Ski Federation
- Phil Mahre at the International Ski Federation - new results - 2007-09
- FIS-ski.com - World Cup season standings - Phil Mahre - 1976-84
- Ski-db.com - results - Phil Mahre
- U.S. Olympic Team.com - profile - Phil Mahre
- Sports Reference.com - Olympic results - Phil Mahre
- 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
- Bizazz Media.com - Phil Mahre talks about his comeback
- mahretrainingcenter.com - get to know the Mahre brothers
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