Marc Hodler — a true commander with a vision

It’s of course shocking for all his longtime World Cup and FIS companions to hear about Marc Hodler’s sudden death — he seemed truly indestructible after being for so many years part of our lives and our horizon.
    Marc was sort of a father figure for many of us who worked with him and learned so much from him — especially those such as Hank Tauber or Gian Franco Kasper sitting next to him in sometimes grueling meetings. His lawyer background, his charismatic drive and his persuasive diplomacy helped so often sorting out difficult situations and problems.
    Marc’s name is mostly related to the recent bribery scandal of Salt Lake City — mostly to blame the dubious behavior of some of his colleagues from the IOC, who knew about the unethical ongoings but kept silent. But it’s important to see the bigger picture, to see Marc as a driving force to develop ski racing and help it become one of the most modern individual sports.
    He elevated the sport from the days when, despite being part of the Winter Olympics, athletes were not allowed to officially make money from racing or train more than three weeks in the fall.

More on Hodler:
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USSA mourns "great leader"
Hodler dies after stroke

AN APPRECIATION

IT'S OF COURSE shocking for all his longtime World Cup and FIS companions to hear about Marc Hodler’s sudden death — he seemed truly indestructible after being for so many years part of our lives and our horizon.
    Marc was sort of a father figure for many of us who worked with him and learned so much from him — especially those such as Hank Tauber or Gian Franco Kasper sitting next to him in sometimes grueling meetings. His lawyer background, his charismatic drive and his persuasive diplomacy helped so often sorting out difficult situations and problems.
    For many, Marc’s name is mostly related to the recent bribery scandal of Salt Lake City, which he uncovered in December 1998 — mostly to blame the dubious behavior of some of his colleagues from the IOC, who knew about the unethical ongoings but kept silent. But it’s important to see the bigger picture, to see Marc as a driving force to develop ski racing and help it become one of the most modern individual sports.
    He elevated the sport from the days when, despite being part of the Winter Olympics, athletes were not allowed to officially make money from racing or train more than three weeks in the fall.
     His battles in the 1960s and early 1970s with IOC President Avery Brundage who disliked winter sports in general and alpine ski racing in particular, were pretty tough sometimes and always spectacular.
    Hodler also was very close to the athletes and their concerns. He was looking for new solutions to better promote snowsports in those sometimes difficult pre-IMG years when the best champions were not world stars as now.
    That’s one of the reasons why he strongly supported the creation of the alpine World Cup in 1966 during the FIS World Championships in Portillo, Chile. For days, a group of friends including U.S. Alpine Director Bob Beattie, French racing chief Honoré Bonnet and “L’Equipe” reporter Serge Lang discussed such a tour at the bar of the Portillo Hotel between two races and two rounds of “pisco sour.”
    At a certain point, the FIS president, who had often been briefed about that idea by Lang, was officially included in the discussion. He liked the project so much that he personally presented that revolutionary format to the few journalists who gathered in that lost part of beautiful Chilean Andes. “Gentlemen, we have a World Cup,” he proudly told them.
     The (still unofficial) 1967 World Cup was launched six months later in January 1967 in Berchtesgaden, Germany. It included only 34 races that year (17 for men and 17 for women) and the entire rule book and program was written on a single page by Lang, Beattie and Bonnet. They simply picked the main “classics” on the European calendar and some U.S. races in March (only six countries in total).
    But the most important battle was led and won by Hodler in June 1967 during the FIS Congress organized in Beirut. Most of the FIS experts were not pleased with the new tour and they wanted to get rid of it. They definitely didn’t understand its potential and many fluent members of the former alpine committee, led by Frenchman Robert Faure, fought hard against it.
    The tour was on the verge of disappearing or leaving FIS when Hodler organized a hastily crafted meeting on a Thursday afternoon — normally dedicated to tourism on FIS Congresses. So, instead of visiting the historical site of Balbeck outside Beirut, the FIS experts had to get together for a lengthy and crucial meeting to discuss that hot item.
    Hodler found the strong words and the right ideas to convince the non believers, and he set the legal base to run the new tour within FIS in creating a new “World Cup” committee that he ran himself for several years.
    This is only one of so many examples showing how influent and instrumental Marc Hodler was in a sport that he ran from 1951 to 1998. The sport owes him a lot, and we will all miss him terribly!
    A funeral service for Hodler will take place at 2 p.m. on Oct. 31 in Hodler's hometown of Bern, Switzerland, at the Cathedral of Berne.

More on Hodler:
Marolt on Hodler's legacy
Russi pays homage
Global reaction
USSA mourns "great leader"
Hodler dies after stroke