Toni Sailer: Three-time Olympic champion from Kitzbühel

• Anton Engelbert “Toni” Sailer was born in Kitzbühel in 1935.
• At Cortina 1956 he won downhill, giant slalom and slalom gold.
• He won three golds and slalom silver at the 1958 World Championships in Bad Gastein.
• His seven world titles include the Alpine events at the 1956 Olympics, which also counted as world championship decisions.
• He retired from racing in 1959 and later coached and directed the Hahnenkamm Races.

Toni Sailer was only 20 when he won all three Alpine events at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo: downhill, giant slalom and slalom. He therefore took gold in every Alpine individual race on that programme. His margins were striking: he finished more than six seconds ahead in giant slalom and also won the downhill and slalom by clear margins. The sweep made him the first skier to win all three Olympic Alpine events at one Games and earned him the nickname “Blitz from Kitz.”

Sailer’s success continued at the 1958 World Championships in Bad Gastein, where he won gold in downhill, giant slalom and the combined event, plus silver in slalom. The 1956 Olympic Alpine races had also counted as World Championship decisions: four titles from Cortina and three from Bad Gastein gave him seven world titles. He retired from active racing in 1959, so his international racing career lasted only a few years, but it was exceptionally concentrated in major victories.

After racing, Sailer remained involved in the sport. From 1972 to 1976 he served as head coach and technical director of the Austrian Ski Federation, shifting from his own competition to the development of the national team. Later he returned to Kitzbühel’s major Alpine event as race director of the Hahnenkamm Races from 1986 to 2006. His long organizational role linked his hometown and the race on the Streif to elite ski competition. Sailer also worked as an actor and singer, but his sporting legacy rests chiefly on his titles and later contribution to Austrian skiing.

The Hahnenkamm Races and the Streif were central to Sailer’s later work. His career is one of the title-rich chapters in the history of skiing and belongs among the ski legends.