Lindh, Sailer officially enter U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame

Lindh, Sailer officially enter U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame{mosimage}ISHPEMING, Mich. – Olympic medalist and former downhill world champion Hilary Lindh and renowned club coach Erich Sailer headlined four new members inducted Friday night into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame.

Also inducted, as the Hall of Fame boosted its list of honored members to 346, were David "Darcy" (as in David R.C.) Brown, who helped turn Aspen, Colo., into a major international ski town, and instruction pioneer Walter Foeger, who created the Natur Teknik of skiing while also helping Vermont's Jay Peak develop a half-century ago.

Activities throughout induction weekend took place at the hall and museum in Ishpeming with the induction banquet in nearby Marquette. The induction was Friday night in Marquette with formal enshrinement Saturday in Ishpeming.

Tom Kelly, vice president of marketing communications for the USSA, introduced Lindh, hailing the confidence she carried through her 13 year career.

"Nowhere was that confidence more evident than in her World Championship season [of 1997]. Her season start was anything but auspicious, finishing out of the top 30. But her confidence carried her to Sestriere in February where she completely dominated, winning the downhill. And even with a pair of top 10s on the Olympic course in Nagano that year [the pre-Olympic test events], she had the confidence to know she could leave on top, and retired."

Lindh, who competed for 13 years on the U.S. Ski Team, won three World Cup races in addition to silver in the 1992 Olympic downhill in Albertville, France, her stirring gold-medal performance at the 1997 World Championships in Sestriere, Italy, and bronze in downhill at the 1996 worlds in Sierra Nevada, Spain.

She moved from Juneau, Alaska, to Utah and enrolled in Rowmark Academy after running out of tough competition at home. Among her five U.S. championships were the 1986 title, which came a week before she won the DH gold medal at the Junior World Championships in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria.

Lindh, 36, who retired after the '97 season, called it "a great honor" to be inducted. "To be included with people that have had a big hand in developing the sport is probably the biggest thing," she said.

Lindh and her husband Jodie live in Squamish, B.C.; Lindh delivered their first child, a daughter, Raiyh, this past winter.

Sailer has helped develop more than a dozen athletes for the U.S. Ski Team from Buck Hill Ski Area in the Twin Cities, including three-time Olympians Sarah Schleper (Vail, Colo.) and Kristina Koznick (Eagan, Minn.) and two-time Olympic racer Lindsey Kildow (also Vail, Colo.). Schleper and Koznick attended Sailer's induction and shared in the celebration.

– USSA