Buddy Werner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wallace "Buddy" Werner (1936-1964) was an American alpine skier in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born and raised in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and raced for the University of Colorado. His sister was Skeeter Werner.
Werner was selected for the U.S. Olympic Ski Team three times: 1956, 1960, & 1964. He was the first American to win the famed Hahnenkamm downhill race in Kitzbühel, Austria in 1959. Although Werner never won an Olympic medal, he is considered the first world class ski racer from the United States, excelling in all three alpine disciplines.
Following the conclusion of the 1964 racing season (at the U.S. Championships in Alaska), Werner traveled to Europe to film the ski movie Ski-Fascination for Willy Bogner. Werner and German racer Barbara "Barbi" Henneberger died in an avalanche on the Trais Fleur slope near St. Moritz, Switzerland on April 12, 1964. He was posthumously inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame the same year. He was also inducted into the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.
Mount Werner, location of the Steamboat Ski Resort, formerly known as Storm Mountain, was renamed in his honor.
