Josef STIEGLER

Pepi Stiegler first came to international attention in 1957 when he was Austrian Junior Champion in slalom and combination, and then won senior races in Val Gardena in downhill and combined and a downhill at Zermatt. In the 1957-58 season Stiegler won seven races, adding several more in 1958-59. In January 1960 he won his most important title to date with a victory at Wengen, winning the Lauberhorn. This set him up for the 1960 Winter Olympics, where he won a silver medal in the giant slalom.

Over the next few years Stiegler continued to win international races, including four Austrian Championships with slalom titles in 1960 and 1961, giant slalom in 1963 and a combined victory in 1961. At Innsbruck in 1964 Stiegler won Olympic gold in the slalom with a bronze medal in the giant slalom, and in 1964 Stiegler was Austrian Sportsman of the Year.

Stiegler moved to the United States in 1965 where he became the ski school director at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a post he held for 29 years. He was then named ambassador of skiing at Jackson Hole, finally retiring in 2002, after 37 years with the resort. In 1996 Stiegler was given a gold decoration for services to the Austrian Republic. In 2001 Stiegler was inducted into the US Skiing Hall of Fame. His daughter, Resi Stiegler, raced in Alpine skiing at the 2006 and 2014 Winter Olympics for the United States, as she was raised a US citizen.

Stiegler himself went back to school and in May 2003 earned a bachelor’s degree from Montana State University in English literature. Sadly, in 1993 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and in a rare coincidence, so was American skiier Jimmy Heuga, who had finished third behind Stiegler in the slalom at the 1964 Winter Olympics.