Reaction to the death of Marc Hodler

Reaction from around the world on the death of longtime FIS president and IOC member Marc Hodler:

Hank Tauber, veteran FIS representative and coach
 "He was a great friend. I sat next to him for 14 years on the FIS Council. He was a giant in the sport, for sure. He created the most outstanding winter sports federation. He had a huge influence within the Olympic movement, too. It’s a great loss. … He was so passionate for skiing — that was his life — but he accepted the new sports.
 
"Marc was a great storyteller. He had an incredible mind for history in general, but particularly the history of the sport. Like I said, skiing was his life, along with his family. In meetings, he could go on for hours telling stories, making points along the way to support something about a particular issue."

Howard Peterson, FIS chairman and ex-U.S. Skiing chief
"He loved whatever occurred on snow. He loved seeing young people having opportunity. When he was in Park City for America’s Opening, the jumps were being built. He said, 'Can we go up and look around?' There were big jumps and really big jumps. What excited him was seeing all the little jumps. It was wonderful. Here’s the head of the elite of the elite, and what he cared about was what was being done for children. How many millions of people who were influenced by that directly or indirectly, I don’t know. It was a lot of people."

Bill Marolt, USSA president
"Marc will be remembered in sport as a great leader who personally engineered the growth of the FIS to become one of the strongest and most diverse of any Olympic sports federation. He had the leadership skills to continually move our sport into the future and to grow it at every level.

"When we look at our sport today, we see a sport with strong grass-roots programs worldwide plus annual elite-level global sport series with our FIS World Cups in every sport. No other Olympic sport has this level of depth and diversity, and it's a tribute to what Marc Hodler [achieved] through his passionate leadership for a half-century."

Bernhard Russi, Swiss ski racer, course designer
"As a ski racer, I felt very close to him. For example, he was involved in the Olympic Games in 1972. [Officials] wanted to have the medal ceremony for downhill that I won in a place where nobody was there. They said it was going to be in the men's finish area for bobsled. I went there. Marc Hodler was there. I said, 'This is one of the most important moments of my life. Is this the place to do it?' He said, ‘No.' He arranged to have it in the hockey arena, in front of 20,000 people. He understood very well the athletes. Sport was always more important than business for him.

"He’s a little bit responsible for me being a course architect. During my [racing] career, very often I was talking to him, brainstorming [about] how the sport should develop, in which way it should go. When I quit racing, he remembered that. One day he called me up, he said, 'I have a problem in Calgary for the Olympic Games of 1988.' It was earlier than that, maybe 1982. It was not chosen yet which mountain to use for the Olympic downhill. He had different reports about which could be good. He said to me, 'Go there, tell me exactly what you think.' That’s how my career started as a course architect. I came back with a report saying the mountain has potential, that we have to change the line. The next question was how. That's how I started."

Phil McNichol, U.S. Ski Team coach
"He’s a legend, one of those icons of the sport.  …  His name is immortalized in the Marc Hodler Cup. That’s been a big goal of ours that we finally achieved [in 2004], and I think that’s where his name really rings the loudest in ski racing, especially in ski raciing development. I mean, the Hodler Cup is a big deal. It’s always punctuated with his name. It was just a huge accomplishment for us." 

*The Marc Hodler Cup is awarded to the nation scoring the most top-10 finishes in all disciplines, including the combined, at world juniors. The U.S. team won the Hodler Cup in Maribor, Slovenia, in February 2004.

Patrick Lang, ski racing journalist, son of Serge Lang
"[Marc] Hodler helped ski racing become an international sport. This is one of his legacies. … He helped ski racing establish itself as a professional sport against the will of the IOC and [former IOC chief] Avery Brundage, who hated ski racing. It’s too bad. He was a key figure, the one who created the concept of the FIS family."

Leeland "Doc" Sosman, longtime ski racing official
"What always amazed me about him was that he had such a tremendously broad knowledge of so many different things. His ability as a diplomat was such an outstanding thing working at the FIS. I’m sorry to hear about [his death]. … He had that ability to largely avoid having conflict arise. He was the individual you always thought of when you thought of the FIS and the way it was run.

"Compared to some of the other European bigwigs, Marc seemed to have basically a fair approach. It has to be fair for everybody or we don’t do it. Some of the core European alpine nations always sort of tried to be a monopoly, but in dealing with them he worked hard to make it fair for everybody else. I remember one time there was an alpine racer from Zimbabwe at one race, and Marc worked hard to make sure [that racer] had a fair shake."

Jacques Rogge, IOC president
"The IOC expresses its sadness at the passing of a member who dedicated so much to the Olympic movement. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Hodler’s family."

Thomas Bach, IOC vice president
''One of the true greats of the Olympic world has gone with Marc Hodler."

Ken Read, Alpine Canada Alpin president
“Marc was a real friend to Canadian skiing and in particular the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary. At a time when Calgary was not well-known in the Olympic sport world, he saw the volunteer spirit and the dynamic drive of the 1988 Olympic bid and backed Calgary over more-established cities of Cortina [Italy] and Falun [Sweden]. He encouraged many athletes to remain involved with our sport past their competitive careers and I’m grateful that he personally gave me many opportunities to represent the FIS and IOC. On behalf of the entire Canadian ski racing family, may I extend our sympathies to the Hodler family.”

John Fry, ski author, in his new book, The Story of Modern Skiing (www.upne.com or click here)
(BOOK EXCERPT)He had the Swiss manner of talking quietly with a reasonableness that could make a listener with a contrary viewpoint seem like a troublemaker. He was a tack-sharp linguist, who could make a speech in eight different languages.
     Hodler headed the FIS for forty-seven years, a record tenure for the chief of any international sports federation. … The FIS family was an idea dear to his heart. The family enacted regulations, such as the length of jumping hills, the size of commercial logos permissible on helmets, and the switch of giant slalom from a one-run to a two-run competition. If Hodler, the paterfamilas, smiled warmly at you, you felt good about belonging to his FIS.

— Compiled by Sam Flickinger, Shauna Farnell, Paul Robbins,
Don Cameron, The Associated Press

Reaction from around the world on the death of longtime FIS president and IOC member Marc Hodler:

Hank Tauber, veteran FIS representative and coach
 "He was a great friend. I sat next to him for 14 years on the FIS Council. He was a giant in the sport, for sure. He created the most outstanding winter sports federation. He had a huge influence within the Olympic movement, too. It’s a great loss. … He was so passionate for skiing — that was his life — but he accepted the new sports.
 
"Marc was a great storyteller. He had an incredible mind for history in general, but particularly the history of the sport. Like I said, skiing was his life, along with his family. In meetings, he could go on for hours telling stories, making points along the way to support something about a particular issue."

Howard Peterson, FIS chairman and ex-U.S. Skiing chief
"He loved whatever occurred on snow. He loved seeing young people having opportunity. When he was in Park City for America’s Opening, the jumps were being built. He said, 'Can we go up and look around?' There were big jumps and really big jumps. What excited him was seeing all the little jumps. It was wonderful. Here’s the head of the elite of the elite, and what he cared about was what was being done for children. How many millions of people who were influenced by that directly or indirectly, I don’t know. It was a lot of people." 

Bill Marolt, USSA president
"Marc will be remembered in sport as a great leader who personally engineered the growth of the FIS to become one of the strongest and most diverse of any Olympic sports federation. He had the leadership skills to continually move our sport into the future and to grow it at every level.

"When we look at our sport today, we see a sport with strong grass-roots programs worldwide plus annual elite-level global sport series with our FIS World Cups in every sport. No other Olympic sport has this level of depth and diversity, and it's a tribute to what Marc Hodler [achieved] through his passionate leadership for a half-century."

Bernhard Russi, Swiss ski racer, course designer
"As a ski racer, I felt very close to him. For example, he was involved in the Olympic Games in 1972. [Officials] wanted to have the medal ceremony for downhill that I won in a place where nobody was there. They said it was going to be in the men's finish area for bobsled. I went there. Marc Hodler was there. I said, 'This is one of the most important moments of my life. Is this the place to do it?' He said, ‘No.' He arranged to have it in the hockey arena, in front of 20,000 people. He understood very well the athletes. Sport was always more important than business for him.

"He’s a little bit responsible for me being a course architect. During my [racing] career, very often I was talking to him, brainstorming [about] how the sport should develop, in which way it should go. When I quit racing, he remembered that. One day he called me up, he said, 'I have a problem in Calgary for the Olympic Games of 1988.' It was earlier than that, maybe 1982. It was not chosen yet which mountain to use for the Olympic downhill. He had different reports about which could be good. He said to me, 'Go there, tell me exactly what you think.' That’s how my career started as a course architect. I came back with a report saying the mountain has potential, that we have to change the line. The next question was how. That's how I started."

Phil McNichol, U.S. Ski Team coach
"He’s a legend, one of those icons of the sport.  …  His name is immortalized in the Marc Hodler Cup. That’s been a big goal of ours that we finally achieved [in 2004], and I think that’s where his name really rings the loudest in ski racing, especially in ski raciing development. I mean, the Hodler Cup is a big deal. It’s always punctuated with his name. It was just a huge accomplishment for us." 

*The Marc Hodler Cup is awarded to the nation scoring the most top-10 finishes in all disciplines, including the combined, at world juniors. The U.S. team won the Hodler Cup in Maribor, Slovenia, in February 2004.

Patrick Lang, ski racing journalist, son of Serge Lang
"[Marc] Hodler helped ski racing become an international sport. This is one of his legacies. … He helped ski racing establish itself as a professional sport against the will of the IOC and [former IOC chief] Avery Brundage, who hated ski racing. It’s too bad. He was a key figure, the one who created the concept of the FIS family."

Leeland "Doc" Sosman, longtime ski racing official
"What always amazed me about him was that he had such a tremendously broad knowledge of so many different things. His ability as a diplomat was such an outstanding thing working at the FIS. I’m sorry to hear about [his death]. … He had that ability to largely avoid having conflict arise. He was the individual you always thought of when you thought of the FIS and the way it was run.

"Compared to some of the other European bigwigs, Marc seemed to have basically a fair approach. It has to be fair for everybody or we don’t do it. Some of the core European alpine nations always sort of tried to be a monopoly, but in dealing with them he worked hard to make it fair for everybody else. I remember one time there was an alpine racer from Zimbabwe at one race, and Marc worked hard to make sure [that racer] had a fair shake."

Jacques Rogge, IOC president
"The IOC expresses its sadness at the passing of a member who dedicated so much to the Olympic movement. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Hodler’s family."

Thomas Bach, IOC vice president
''One of the true greats of the Olympic world has gone with Marc Hodler."

Ken Read, Alpine Canada Alpin president
“Marc was a real friend to Canadian skiing and in particular the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary. At a time when Calgary was not well-known in the Olympic sport world, he saw the volunteer spirit and the dynamic drive of the 1988 Olympic bid and backed Calgary over more-established cities of Cortina [Italy] and Falun [Sweden]. He encouraged many athletes to remain involved with our sport past their competitive careers and I’m grateful that he personally gave me many opportunities to represent the FIS and IOC. On behalf of the entire Canadian ski racing family, may I extend our sympathies to the Hodler family.”

John Fry, ski author, in his new book, The Story of Modern Skiing (www.upne.com or click here)
(BOOK EXCERPT)He had the Swiss manner of talking quietly with a reasonableness that could make a listener with a contrary viewpoint seem like a troublemaker. He was a tack-sharp linguist, who could make a speech in eight different languages.
     Hodler headed the FIS for forty-seven years, a record tenure for the chief of any international sports federation. … The FIS family was an idea dear to his heart. The family enacted regulations, such as the length of jumping hills, the size of commercial logos permissible on helmets, and the switch of giant slalom from a one-run to a two-r
un competition. If Hodler, the paterfamilas, smiled warmly at you, you felt good about belonging to his FIS.

— Compiled by Sam Flickinger, Shauna Farnell, Paul Robbins, Don Cameron, The Associated Press